Definitely Not Nothing
by NoPondInTheForest
Summary: She may not be the most important woman in all of creation, but that doesn't mean she's useless. The fix-it fic our dear Donna so deserves. (Part 8 of my Consequences series, Eleven/Rose)
1. Chapter 1

**I can't believe it's been 1.5 years since the last installment of Consequences, and it was so, so fun to return to these characters. I've had this story outlined forever, and it was high time to give it life. Hope you enjoy!**

* * *

"Mum!" snapped Reese, thumping her textbook hard against the table. "Do you really think I care about the Queen's new grandbaby's bloody hair-colour? Can't you see I'm trying to study?"

"Oi, you don't need to shout at me about it," said Donna, arms crossing to hide how startled she'd been. "You've had your nose in those books for hours and it's only the fourth day of classes, you can't have that much work yet. I just wanted to chat for a mo, is all. I've hardly seen you all week."

"I know you don't get it, cos you never went for your A-levels yourself, but I really do have that much work." After finding her page again, Reese slumped over the textbook on an elbow, her profile hidden behind her long dark curls. The message was clear. _Go away._

Donna didn't move, debating if she should push it. Ever since her father had moved out, a good six months ago now, Reese had been somewhat difficult to live with. Not that Donna's relationship with her daughter had ever been amazing. A born daddy's girl, Reese had inherited Shaun's gorgeous dark complexion, his sense of humour, his brains. Donna didn't mind. Actually she was glad of it, glad her child had been gifted genetics and abilities superior to her own (even though the man she'd got them from had turned into a twat with an eye for twenty-year-old bimbos).

What Donna did mind, however, was the very Shaun-like disdain toward _her _Reese had been exhibiting all too frequently lately. "I can see that hint of red in your hair, with the sun coming in on you like that," she commented lightly. Reese's spine tensed. "You've got a little bit of me in you too, though I know you don't like it."

"That's so passive-aggressive," muttered Reese from her hair-cave.

"Oi, I was just saying. And you know, it'd be nice if you shared what you're learning in that psychology class of yours for once, instead of usin' it to throw fancy insults at your mum."

A scraping sound, as Reese abruptly shoved her chair back. "I might try to share," she retorted, standing and stacking her books, "if I thought there was the tiniest chance you'd comprehend it."

Like an arrow, straight and true, the remark hit Donna square between the eyes, and she winced in actual pain.

Stupid, no-good, nothing. That was her. Her truth. Oh, people might think she was fun at first, and plenty liked her for her money, but anybody who spent enough time around her sniffed out her uselessness sooner or later. Her husband saw it, her mother did too, and so did everyone else, save Granddad (dear, daft Granddad). Even so, she'd always so hoped...

Swallowing hard, Donna meandered over to the french doors, staring blankly out at the back garden. How stupid was she, hoping Reese might not discover what she was? When her daughter was smarter than most.

"I'm off, then."

Donna turned. "Where you going?"

Reese shouldered her bookbag. "Dad's."

"Whatever for?"

"Quiet."

"You can have quiet here, I promise," said Donna, following her across the tile. "Besides, traffic's crazy this time of day."

Reese paused and turned, her full lips pursed, brows pinched skeptically. "It's _never_ quiet here. I think that telly is on 24-7, either some stupid reality show or celebrity news, and then if you're not talking at me, I have to hear you on the phone with Gena or Deb or-

"Don't be rude, Miss!"

"_I'm_ rude- oh my god, that's so hypocritical. All we do lately is argue, Mum! Maybe it would be best if I went to _live_ with Dad."

Anger flashed through Donna. "Oh right, like you'll get anything done there either, you'll be too busy cleaning up after him and his woman of the week!"

Reese glared. She hated jabs at her dad, especially the true ones. "What I should really do is get my own place."

"At age sixteen, sure! And you'll pay for this place how, again?"

"Like you can talk! I've never seen you go to a job in my life!"

"Right, cos I had my hands full raising you_-_"

"No, cos you won the bloody lottery!"

Stung speechless, Donna gaped at her. Reese didn't notice, too busy stomping off through the wide archway into the foyer. "I don't want a life like yours, Mum," she went on, snatching her coat from the hook. "Where everything's just handed to me; that's why I'm going to study hard for my A-levels and go to uni. I want to do something that _matters_." Without looking back, she grabbed her bag from the floor and flung the front door open. "I'll be at the library."

"Sweetheart, wait-"

The door shut. Numb, Donna stood at the full-length side glass, eyes on the back of the grey coat, the tumble of long dark hair, until Reese disappeared from view.

Though she was well aware of her inadequacies, having them thrown in her face by the person she loved most in the world- it cut sharper, wounded deeper. Not that she hadn't deserved it, in part. Some of the things she'd said to Reese had been positively Sylvia-like.

When Reese had been born, Donna had sworn to be the sort of mother she'd always longed for. Patient, kind, generous with her attention and praise. And mostly, she'd lived up to it, hadn't she? Perhaps she could have done better in the patience department. Maybe she should have eased up a little on the praise.

And the presents.

"Doesn't want everything handed to her, she says," muttered Donna a few minutes later, into a steaming cuppa. "When that's all she's ever known."

Yes, Reese was a bit spoilt, and she was young and immature. All very good reasons not to take her words too personally. Even so, understanding things didn't bring Donna much comfort… and neither did her cup of tea, nor her favorite overstuffed armchair, now that she thought about it. She felt itchy, unsettled, tired of sitting around her massive, empty house, all alone with her thoughts. Thoughts that had always been far too unkind to be very good company.

"A walk," she decided, and went for her coat.

* * *

Playgrounds had always made Donna think of beehives, noisy and swarming with activity, and this one was no different. Pleasantly shaded by mature trees, it was alive with small children and their after-school energy; they climbed and swung and slid, all smiles and happy noise. Feeling a bit nostalgic, Donna wandered to an empty bench and sat. She'd spent a lot of time in playgrounds, when Reese was little. How much simpler things had been back then.

But those delightful days were gone, weren't they? Her girl would never be little again, ever, and oh, that hurt. In a rather blissful way. In a mood to poke at it further, Donna settled in, and then frowned as she noticed a set of eyes watching her, quite intently, from the nearby swing-set.

Rude, Donna almost said, barely stopping herself in time. Good grief, it was just a little girl. Kids did things like that. When Reese was small, wasn't she always chastising her for staring at people?

Although usually, they were odd people. Suddenly self-conscious, Donna patted her hair, touched her face, gave her clothes a surreptitious inspection. All fine, far as she could tell. Yet the girl swung and kept on staring, legs kicking, long brown hair flying, her gaze on Donna unwavering. As if Donna were in full clown costume or something, and might start to somersault around any second.

Just as Donna was about to run out of patience, the little girl flung herself from the swing, landing hard but graceful in the wood-chips. "Hello!" she called out cheerfully as she headed straight for Donna, her stride quick and purposeful.

"Well, hello there," replied Donna, unable to help a smile. What a funny, confident air the little thing had. Clad in a simple blue and pink striped dress with pink leggings underneath, the child couldn't have been older than seven, but she carried herself as if she were six feet tall. "Do I look like someone you know, sweetie? Because I don't think we've met."

"No," agreed the girl, giving Donna an intent, unsettling look over that made her feel a bit like a specimen. "We haven't, not yet. I'm Suzy."

"Pleased to meet you, Suzy," said Donna, putting out her hand and telling herself to stop being silly. How dumb is she, getting all nervous around a little kid? "I'm Donna."

Suzy gave her a grin. It was wide and delighted and remarkably beautiful, even with two front teeth only half-grown in. "I know," she declared, grabbing Donna by the hand and tugging.

Chuckling, Donna obligingly got to her feet. "Oh really? You psychic or something?"

"Yes," stated Suzy, quite matter-of-factly. "Will you help me find my aunt, please?"

Donna's smile faded. "Oh no, are you lost?"

"No." She began to haul Donna out across the grass like an overeager little dog. "But she might be."

"Wait a mo, sweetheart, we can't just leave." Donna paused them, keeping hold of Suzy's hand. "Isn't she somewhere around here, at the park?"

Deflating a little, Suzy kicked the toe of one of her small pink Chucks against the ground. "No, she's at her house. I… I wandered off."

Donna blew out a breath. "Okay, um. She must live nearby, then?" she said, pointing toward a row of attached houses a short distance away.

"No, not really."

"How did you get here, Suzy?"

A shrug. Suzy's gaze met Donna's, and then shifted away. "It's complicated."

"Blimey, you're an evasive little thing, aren't you?" huffed Donna. "Alright, do you know your aunt's mobile number, by chance? Or I suppose could we phone your mummy or daddy?"

A glimmer of fear flashed across the small face, there and gone in an instant. "I'm thirsty. Can we go get a drink of water, please?" Donna hesitated, and Suzy squeezed her hand. "Please?"

"Well, alright, but then we've got to phone _somebody_. I don't want people thinking you've been kidnapped."

"Oh, but I've never been kidnapped," Suzy said, sounding disappointed. With a little skip she started them off- and straight toward Donna's house, by funny coincidence. "I know Sarah Jane's number," she offered magnanimously. "My aunt. She's minding me and my little sister today."

"Oh no, your little sister didn't wander off with you, did she?"

Suzy's nose wrinkled scornfully. "No. DJ can't even walk, and when she gets scared she _cries_."

"DJ, really? What a cute name."

"You think so? My mummy doesn't like it very much. She says we should call my sister by her real name."

"Oh, and what's that, then?"

A glinting, sideways look from those oddly deep dark eyes. "Donna. She was named after you, probably."

Hiding a smile, Donna nodded solemnly. How precious was that? Maybe this kid was a bit more innocent than she looked.

* * *

One measly minute. Sixty scant seconds, even fewer blinks and breaths. A brisk walk from lounge to kitchen and back again, a tiny errand to fetch a bottle for a crying baby. Apparently, that's all the time it takes completely lose track of a tiny Time Lord.

"How are those scans coming along, K-9?" Sarah Jane called over in a hushed voice, as she tirelessly rocked the baby- who had finally dropped off, thank heaven, her lashes fanning out thick and dark against satin cheeks. DJ was a darling, but Sarah Jane had never beheld such a champion sleep-resister. Also, she was quite a lot heavier than she looked.

Sarah Jane's neck hurt.

"Radius of five miles, Mistress, no human-Time Lord hybrid." K-9 clunked and whirred, flashing images across the computer monitors in a blur.

"Expand the parameters, please. You might as well double them. Somehow she's got more than five miles away in the last twenty minutes, so she can't be on foot."

"Ex ex ex expanding."

With a sigh, Sarah Jane dropped her nose to DJ's soft head and breathed in her sweet baby scent. Five minutes. She'd give herself five more minutes and if they didn't locate Suzy, she'd give in and phone Rose. She hated to interrupt her, though. Whatever mission UNIT had summoned Rose and the Doctor for, it must be quite important, as they'd dropped in without warning and practically begged her to watch their girls for a bit.

Not that she needed begging. Sarah Jane adored those kids, and fervently wished she could see them more often. In all fairness, the Doctor and Rose (well, probably more Rose) did make an effort to pop in for tea every so often. Suzy even called her Aunt Sarah, which delighted her to no end, and she'd had the privilege of minding her a handful of times over the years. Hard work, certainly, but a joy all the same- as one would expect of a child of the Doctor's.

Today saw the first time he'd asked Sarah Jane to care for both his children, and she hadn't even hesitated. Really, she'd felt herself quite up to the task. DJ was only an infant of six months, and Suzy was a big girl, going on seven. Who would've ever thought she'd need to have K-9 put the entire house on lockdown, as she had back when Suzy was still a toddler? Suzy was beyond old enough to know better than to run off.

Was that girl ever going to hear it, once Sarah Jane got her hands on her.

Kissing DJ's wee forehead, Sarah Jane went and carefully laid her in the portable cot in her bedroom. The baby stirred but didn't wake, and so Sarah Jane returned to the lounge in relief. At least something was going well. "Anything yet, K-9?"

"Negative."

Her back pocket buzzed, and Sarah Jane fumbled for her mobile. Unknown number. Most likely it was someone wanting to sell her something. Still, she was desperate enough to answer it. "Hello?"

Her greeting wasn't returned, though she could a television blaring in the background. "Hello?"

"Aunt Sarah?" ventured a small voice.

Sarah Jane sank, weak-kneed, into a recliner. "Suzy! Where are you?! I've been worried sick!"

"I'm sorry." The apology was thick with sincerity. "I'm…um. I'm in Chiswick, I think?"

"Chiswick?!" Sarah Jane exclaimed. "How on earth did you get so far away?"

* * *

Seated high on a barstool, Donna's mobile at her ear, Suzy lifted her glass of water into the air, squinting up through its bottom- at what, exactly, Donna could not begin to guess. "A nice lady is helping me," the little girl told her aunt, voice raising over the small fist-fight that had broken out on _Jeremy Kyle_. "A very nice lady. I can stay with her today. Will you please tell Mummy and Daddy they can fetch me here?"

Taken aback, Donna glanced at Suzy as she lowered the volume on the TV (having finally located the remote, tucked halfway under a _People_ magazine on the table). Suzy clunked her water-glass onto the countertop as she listened to her aunt's reply, her pretty face scrunching into a massive pout. Getting a big fat NO, no doubt.

Donna grinned. What a funny, cute kid. Presumptuous, but cute. "Hey, Suzy?" she called across the kitchen. "Tell your auntie I'll text her my address."

Abruptly Suzy straightened, and she did not seem to hear Donna. "Are you certain you want to do that, Aunt Sarah?" she said, her sulk clearing quick as a summer storm. "Because DJ's just fallen asleep, I think." A pause. "Yes, but you'll have to bring her along, which means you'll need to wake her. And I'll tell you right now that waking DJ is not a good idea. Really, very, extremely not good."

It was hard not to be impressed. The kid sure knew how to get what she wanted (though why she wanted to stay with Donna so badly, Donna had no clue). Going by the smirk on Suzy's lips, the aunt had been stymied. Donna shook her head. Cleverest person to ever walk the earth she was not, however, she knew how to outwit a six-year-old. Unlike some people.

Strolling toward the fridge, she passed by Suzy and smoothly nipped the mobile from the child's hand. "Hello, Sarah?" she said, trying not to laugh at the child's look of surprised indignation.

"Yes, hello. This is Sarah Jane Smith."

A zing of pain flared behind her eyes and Donna winced. "I'm Donna Temple-Noble... well, I've recently dropped the Temple, along with my prat of an ex-husband, ha! Anyway, I found your niece at a park near my house -she's quite the precocious little thing, isn't she? But if you'll give me your address, I'll happily return her to you so you won't have to wake the baby."

"Noble?" The woman sounded breathless, like she'd just run a mile. "Did you say you're Donna Noble?"

"That's right, do we know each other or something? Your name sounds a bit familiar-"

"Could you put Suzy back on for a minute, please?"

It was a rather brusque cut-off and Donna raised her eyebrows. "Alright, alright, keep your shirt on," she muttered, going to hand the phone to Suzy. She was still on the barstool, legs swinging, fingers tapping, eyes glued to a news bulletin that had popped up on the wall-mounted telly. A female reporter spoke to the camera, but Donna hardly caught a word before it cut to a shot of black-clad soldiers, camped out on the street and steps that fronted a large stone building. _Hostage Situation in West London_, the bottom banner read.

Donna's vision tunneled. That building, those steps, she _knew_ them. Went past them nearly every day, as they were only a few minutes walk from her house. It was their local library, the one on Dukes Ave, the very place her Reese had run off to, oh god, how long ago was it now? An hour? Two? Donna didn't know, she couldn't think. "Where on earth's my ruddy phone gone?" she gasped, flinging her arms out, turning this way and that as she frantically scanned the room.

"It's in your hand." Suzy was watching Donna with wide eyes. "What's wrong?"

Donna shook her head. Her phone's screen was lit, the line still open. "I've got to go," she told Sarah Smith, hardly aware of what she was saying. "I've got to phone my daughter."

"Donna? Is something wrong?"

Ending the call, Donna tapped her favorites list with shaking fingers. As she put her mobile back to her ear she held her breath, waiting for Reese's phone to ring.

_Your call cannot be completed as dialed, please check the number-_

Cursing under her breath, Donna hung up and tried again, and then a third time, punching the number in manually. It was no use. The call wouldn't connect.

"I don't understand," she moaned, feeling every bit as helpless as Shaun always claimed she was in stressful situations. "Even if her phone's off, I should still get voicemail-"

The phone buzzed in her hand. Donna's heart gave one great bound, only to sink when she saw the number on the screen. Sarah again.

"Donna? You didn't phone me back."

"There's hostages," Donna told her, pacing, one hand in her hair. "I don't know if they've got her! I don't know what to do!"

"What are you talking about? Got who?"

"My daughter, that's who!" she shouted, frustrated and panicked and so, so afraid. "My Reese! I annoyed her, it's my fault she left, and now she might be-"

"Look, Donna!" Suzy called out, pointing at the TV. "My daddy's there now, he'll save her for you!"

"What?" Mobile still at her ear, Donna tried her best to breathe. "Your daddy? He's a soldier?"

Nose crinkling, Suzy shook her head vigorously. "No, course not. He tells soldiers what to do. See him there, at the top of the steps, by the doors?"

Although the library was now in the background of the news report, it was easy to pick out who Suzy meant, the one man on the scene who was not clad in head-to-toe black. He stuck out, sore thumb-like, in a long violet coat, and was that a bow-tie? The man looked like he should be head of staff at some posh hotel, not the commander of an army.

And yet, his authority was clear as day. As was the respect, and even awe, with which the team of soldiers regarded him.

The tight coil of her stomach relaxed, just a little.

Small, cool fingers threaded with hers, and she met Suzy's eyes. Something about them still made her shiver, but they were calm, confident, far wiser than they should be. "He's going to help her," Suzy repeated, and somehow, Donna believed her.

"Donna. Donna?" A tinny voice came from her phone's speaker. How long had Sarah been trying to get her attention?

"Meet me at the Chiswick Library," Donna instructed Sarah without preamble. "On Dukes Ave. I've got to find out what's going on. I've got to get my daughter."

"Donna, no, please, don't do that. Don't take Suzy down there. Her father is on scene, he's a… a special consultant. I'm sure he won't want his child there. Will you please just wait and I'll come fetch-"

"Wait?" countered Donna, hackles rising. "Would you stay home and _wait_, if your child were in danger? Sorry, Sunshine, but I don't care one whit about you saving face when I've got to save my daughter. You'll come for Suzy at the bloody Chiswick Library, and perhaps next time you won't _lose her._"

Ending the call, she found Suzy watching her, brown eyes full of affectionate awe.

Something about it made Donna's heart swell, almost as if she were used to having someone gaze at her in such a way, long ago.

Ridiculous. She must really be losing it.

Suzy hopped down from the stool, her hand still in Donna's. "You think you're scared, but you're not," she declared, her smile wide and sweet. "I've heard you're the bravest woman in the world."

Donna snorted, shaking her head. "Ha, I wish. But you know what? I don't think a mother is ever too scared to try and save her daughter."

"I know," replied Suzy, nodding. "My mummy is the bravest woman in the _universe_." She inclined her head towards the door. "Allons-y?"

"Right-o, kid. Allons-y."

* * *

Nothing was going to stop Donna from storming that library, or so she'd thought. In reality though, she could hardly even see it. Not surrounded as it was, by a veritable fortress of chaos- cameras and reporters and news vans and spectators, thickly ringing a sturdy military barricade of fences and soldiers. It was absolutely _bonkers_.

It was only by wielding a couple of her best-honed skills -stubbornness, and a stout set of lungs- that Donna had managed to grab any attention at all.

"If that high-and-mighty officer bloke doesn't come back," she said to Suzy, wryly, "what do you think of me inserting myself into one of those news reports?"

Suzy's eyes lit up.

"Ms. Noble?" called grim-faced lieutenant Zane from the opposite side of the barricade, startling Donna with his prompt reappearance. When she'd spoken to (well, shouted at) him several minutes ago, he'd done his best to stonewall her. Now his tone was soft, almost deferential.

"Oh no, is my daughter-"

"Reese Temple is fine, ma'am. We are negotiating for her release."

At once, Donna's lungs could hold air again; she wanted to go hug the man, and slap him. "Finally, a straight answer. Why couldn't you have-

The rough scrape of metal dragged against concrete drowned her out, as two soldiers created a small gap in the metal fence. Zane gestured to it. "Come with me, please."

With a tight nod, Donna obeyed, tugging a very willing Suzy along behind her. The child had hardly said two words since they'd arrived, utterly enthralled with watching soldiers bustle about like orderly ants, weapons at their hips.

It _was_ all rather impressive. Even Donna could see that, upset as she was. A large area around the library had been cordoned off, secured by a tight perimeter, and now, inside of it, the air practically reeked with confidence and power. Sturdy boots stomped, orders were barked, shoulders were squared. Shiny, black jeeps and huge cargo vans gleamed in the sunlight, mighty as the commanders they transported. Donna let the feel of it seep into her bones, let it comfort her. Surely such people could help her daughter.

Before long, Zane halted at the rear of the largest vehicle Donna had seen yet, an unmarked silver lorry. Three sharps knocks later and the door at the back swung open, revealing a slim older woman with blonde bobbed hair.

"Thank you, Lieutenant Zane," she said, gracefully descending the temporary stairs that had been set against the lorry's bumper. "I'll take it from here."

Saluting, he scurried away, and the woman smiled warmly at Donna and Suzy. "Ms Noble, I presume?" she said, a note of that same odd deference in her voice. "I'm Kate Stewart, Chief Scientific Officer of UNIT. So sorry to meet you under such circumstances. I'd like to assure you that the situation is being carefully assessed by our best people, and that no civilians, including your daughter, have been seriously injured. You will be kept in the loop, upon my word."

Tears filled Donna's eyes at such unexpected kindness. "Oh, thank you so much. I don't suppose I could talk to her, could I? I've tried phoning myself, but it wouldn't connect."

Kate Stewart looked thoughtful. "At the moment, I don't believe that's a possibility. I'm sorry."

"But if she's alright and you've got people in there-"

"We're communicating with our people via closed-circuit radio. There's no working phones or computers on site, for reasons that are classified."

Something about how she said it sent a chill down Donna's spine. She glanced at Suzy, who was leaned up against her, big-eyed, hanging on every word. Not wanting to be overheard by a six-year-old's ears, Donna lowered her voice. "It's not terrorists, is it?"

"No, no, nothing like that, don't worry. Now, if you'll follow me, I'm going to have one of my best men escort you and your little one to our command center. It'll be a far more cheerful place to wait this out, with chairs and tea and-

"I'm not _leaving_," Donna cut in loudly. "And don't go changing the subject. What do those, those _criminals_ want, in a bloody library of all places? What do they need my daughter as hostage for?"

"I'm sorry," Kate repeated, the steely gleam in her eye at odds with her soft tone. "I can't tell you that."

Donna leaned in, ready for battle. "It's got to be about money, it always is. Why can't you just give them what they want? It's not worth risking people's lives!"

"We are doing our best to not put anyone at risk, and that includes you and your little girl here, Ms Noble. You'll be much safer elsewhere."

Suzy's clear voice floated in. "I'm not Donna's little girl, silly Kate Stewart. I'm Suzy Tyler."

The CSO, till now so self-assured and unshakable, paled before Donna's eyes. "What?"

"Right, about that," Donna hurried to say, Kate's shock making her wonder how big a mistake she'd made, bringing Suzy here. "I know she's the daughter of your special consultant. She told me. We just met a couple hours ago -long story- and I didn't want to expose her to all this, but I had no choice. Her aunt should be here soon."

Kate didn't answer, her full attention fixed on Suzy. "Oh dear, you were just a baby when I last saw you," she said. "But... what are you doing with Donna? I thought…" She shook herself, crouching to look Suzy square in the eye. "Do your parents know about this?"

Suzy kicked at the asphalt, guilt in the set of her shoulders and the scrunch of her nose.

"Okay," said Kate to herself, jamming a hand into her hair. "Okay. If you'll just… both of you, please wait, I need to-"

The trailer's back door swung open again, and a younger blonde poked her head out. "Kate? I've got something that you need to-"

All at once her breath caught, her eyes popped wide, her mouth frozen in the shape of the last word she'd spoken. If Kate had been shocked, well, this poor woman was absolutely horrified.

Only she wasn't staring at Suzy, but at Donna.

"Oh my god," she murmured, hand finding her mouth. Her gaze fell to the girl at Donna's side. "Oh Suzy, what have you done?"

"Mummy, like I been telling you, it's the TARDIS. She _wanted_ me to-"

"_Shh, Susan!"_

"TARDIS?" echoed Donna, wincing as a burning pressure began to build behind her eyes. She pressed her fingers to her temples, squinting through the pain, as a blue box lit by starlight shimmered into her mind's eye. How had she forgotten the TARDIS?

A hand clasped her wrist and she pried her eyes open, beholding a very worried face.

How had she forgotten that face?

"Rose?"

Fire crested, a blaze of heat and light and gold. Then she knew only black silence.


	2. Chapter 2

It was an exhausting sort of sleep: the sort that traps a person just below the surface, struggling to wake, body and limbs as heavy as lead. Donna felt like she had been kicking against its undertow for ages by the time the background whispers got a little too loud.

"...yes, yes, I know you're sorry, my darling, but the best way you can help is by being quieter, yeah?"

A sniffle. "I _am_ quiet, Mummy, but can I please just-"

"No, I said. It won't hurt you to sit there and think for awhile. Besides, right now Donna needs her rest."

On hearing her own name, Donna drew a sharp breath, the smell of fresh coffee filling her nose. Exhaustion still pinned her down like a weighted blanket, but her fingers managed a twitch, her lungs another deep inhale. Slowly, one eye cracked open.

Low, bluish light met her. Even in her disoriented, dry-mouthed state, Donna instantly discerned something had gone very wrong. Waking in a strange bed, to strange whispers?

And...more sniffling?

Maternal instinct took over, and Donna reacted before she could think. "Reese?" she called out as she struggled upright, forcing her eyes to fully open. "Reese, love, are you alright?"

"Your daughter is fine, Ms. Noble," said a calm voice. Startled, Donna looked over. A woman -smartly dressed, short haircut, attractive- sat in a nearby chair, a steaming mug on the desk behind her, and she was observing Donna intently, like a doctor might a patient. "How is your head?"

"My head? It's… fine?" Donna glanced around, bewildered and more than a little alarmed. Her bed was not a bed, so much as a rickety cot, and the room around her was oddly shaped, narrow and long and windowless. Numerous flatscreen monitors hung in a row down one wall, most off, some blank and glowing. Two women and a man, clad identically in black, sat at a long table before them, headsets over their ears. One spoke in a hushed undertone, another scribbled furiously on a pad of paper. None of them paid Donna the least bit of attention.

"What's happened?" she asked, clutching the rough blanket with shaky fingers. "Am I in hospital or something?"

"No," the woman replied, just as another blonde -this one young, with long, straight hair- came into view. She knelt before Donna, gazing up at her for a long moment. Her shapely brows were knitted, her dark eyes full of worry.

"Do you know me, Donna?"

Donna began to shake her head, but as a flash lit up a dark, dusty corner of memory, the pretty face turned familiar. She did know her- the lost woman, found, only to be lost again. A woman who was everything, somehow...not to Donna, but close. "Rose?"

Rose gave her a smile that could rival sunlight, though she caught only a glimpse of it before she was snatched into a tight hug. "Oh, Donna, it's so good to see you again."

"You too," replied Donna automatically, mind desperately grappling for where she might have seen Rose before (store clerk? former colleague? fourth cousin?)

(Anywhere _other_ than those hazy old dreams where monsters dwelt, the ridiculous novel she had once tried to write.)

Donna was still trying to sort it when Rose sat down beside her, the bed creaking beneath them. "And your head's okay?"

Rose seemed to be blinking back tears as she asked this, actual tears over _Donna_. "Why is everyone so bothered about my head?" Donna snapped, frustrated, only to gasp and point at Rose as a few unrelated puzzle-bits slid into place. "Wait a mo. You… you aren't even supposed to be here." Blanks were filling in by the second, now. "We left you behind, left you in another world."

Rose nodded, thumbing the moisture away from her lower lashes. "Yes, that's true, but…Donna, do you know what year it is?"

Just thinking about it made her head spin dizzy circles. Such a question should never have two answers, yet somehow, it did. Like she was two people, living two lives at once. As if she'd chosen both paths when the road forked, with each turning out its own unique destiny, its own unique Donna.

The two were irreconcilable, they didn't mesh at all, though she gave up trying to sort through the mess the instant she recollected where she was, and why. "Oh no." Stomach jolting with panic, Donna swiftly sought out the woman in the chair. _Kate_. "Did you save my daughter? Oh god, how long have I been out?"

"Not long," Kate assured her. "Less than thirty minutes. But your daughter is still in the library, I'm sorry."

"Wait a minute, I know who you are," said Donna, giving the place a second, astonished look-over. "UNIT. You're… you're an alien task force, we've worked with your people before, when the Sontarans invaded. It's not terrorists holding people hostage, is it? It's aliens."

It was a comforting realisation, though Donna couldn't for the life of her say why.

"Yes." Kate tucked her hair back, revealing a blinking Bluetooth earbud. "And if you know us, then you know we're very good at what we do."

"Yeah," Donna replied with a snort, "that's not exactly what the Doctor-" All at once, she froze. "The _Doctor_. I haven't thought of him in ages. How could I possibly have forgotten the Doctor?"

"You saved all of reality," Rose told her, sorrow in her eyes. "But at a cost. You took on a Time Lord's consciousness, Donna, and no human mind can sustain that."

Grief welled in Donna's chest, the loss as fresh as if it had just happened. "He...he just took it away, took everything. I was going to stay, travel with him forever, and he just reached his hands out and-" A shuddering breath. "Why can I remember it all now?"

"There was always a risk of this," said Rose, in a grave, foreboding tone. "The Doctor locked up all that knowledge in your mind, but he wasn't able to actually rid you of it. For years he's been worried this might happen. That something would come along and remind you of your time with him, and trigger that door to open."

"Well, you don't have to look like that about it! Look at me, I'm perfectly fine-"

"Only because I injected you with a potent acetylcholine inhibitor," Kate inserted, setting her mug of coffee back onto the desk. "A memory suppressant, prepared specially for you by the Doctor himself, many years ago. He gave a dose of it to UNIT, and entrusted us with your protection."

"I'm sorry, Donna, but it's a temporary palliative," Rose added. "For a short time it will block the Time Lord knowledge, so it can't burn your mind before the Doctor gets a chance to lock it away again."

"Lock _everything_ away, you mean, so I can't remember the only truly meaningful things I've ever done in my life." With a shake of her head, Donna got up from the bed and squared her shoulders. She couldn't worry about that now, not with her girl badly in need of a rescue. "Well, temporary or no, right now I'm a woman who once traveled with the Doctor, and that makes me something of an expert when it comes to aliens."

Kate looked intrigued, but before she could reply Rose jumped up. "You can't go in there, Donna."

Donna ignored her, scenting victory elsewhere. "I've even dealt with aliens in a library before," she told Kate. "I've got tons of experience, and you need that."

"But it's not the Vashta Nerada again," argued Rose, "nothing like that at all, thankfully. You've never met these sorts of aliens, an' neither have I, for that matter. And they aren't here to hurt people, the Doctor says. Not physically, anyway."

It was a vague, irritating (and rather Doctorish) put-off, and though Donna meant to demand full clarity, what came out was a rather shocked-sounding "He's here?"

For a moment Rose looked surprised, and then she gave a funny little laugh. "Yeah, course he is."

Her reaction sent a familiar tingle of energy charging through Donna's spidey-senses; her ears perked up, her eyes narrowed in suspicion. "He's here," she repeated, giving Rose a slow, considering look-over, "and you're here, too. You didn't just come back, you came back to _him_, didn't you? After we left you behind with your family and the other one, the other-"

"Yes," Rose cut in, fidgeting with an earring as she darted a look around the trailer. "But it's not what you think. It's a long story, Donna. A lot of years have passed since that happened."

"Ma'am," one of the soldiers called to Kate, waving a sheet of paper in the air anxiously. "A word, please?"

"One moment," Kate excused herself, steps muted against the flat carpet as she hurried to join the small huddle at the table.

Rose watched her go, then gestured to the wall full of blank monitors. "Bet you're wondering why they've got all that tech when they aren't even using it."

Donna nearly laughed at her feeble distraction attempt. "You and him," she repeated, a bloodhound on a hunt. "Are you two..."

She let the question dangle, sharp eyes watching Rose's face for any twitch, any flicker that might betray the current state of things between her and the Time Lord. Things had to have come to a head at some point; the pair couldn't possibly have decided to spend their lives in a state of perpetual pining. Nobody was _that_ stupid.

Well. Nobody but the Doctor, that is. Piling all the burdens of the universe upon his own scrawny shoulders, like some sort of volunteer Sisyphus. Just him and his boulder forever, sharing a life, equals in emotional IQ.

Oh, so help her, faces were gonna get shoved together if that utter rubbish was still going on.

A heavy moment passed as Rose held Donna's gaze, her full lips pressed tight, an unreadable glint in her eye. Then, all at once, a grin broke free, and she held up her left hand, palm in.

Sparkling like stars on her ring finger was a trio of flawless gems, set in a double band.

An audible gasp escaped Donna. "No. No _way_. You can't mean to tell me you two are-"

"Married, yeah."

Impulsively, Donna swept Rose into a bear-hug. "Oh, things really have changed, haven't they? If Spaceman finally got it through his thick head that he deserves to be happy."

Rose chuckled and squeezed her tighter. "They really have."

Questions bubbled up till Donna could burst with them, but before she could voice any Rose pulled back, looked past her, and made a beckoning sort of gesture. Glancing over her shoulder, Donna saw a small figure in a striped dress and pink trainers slowly slide off a chair.

"Oh, blimey," Donna exclaimed, struck with guilt. "I completely forgot you were here, Suzy. I'm so sorry."

Suzy didn't answer as she came around the bed, feet dragging, eyes wide with worry.

Rose went to her. "Donna," she said, smoothing a gentle hand over the child's long windblown hair, "this is my daughter, Susan. Although I think you two have already met."

"She's... yours?" Donna could hardly find words, nearer to being struck speechless than when Brad left Jen. "As in yours... and the Doctor's?"

Rose laughed. "Yep."

"Oh," replied Donna, a long whoosh of air leaving her lungs as she took in the little girl with new eyes. Charming, tiny bit odd, larger than life, too clever by half. Physically she resembled Rose, but those big, expressive brown eyes, oh, those were all Spaceman. "That...that actually explains a lot."

"Suzy, don't you have something to say to Donna?"

Suzy turned up her small face, her pink cheeks tear-streaked, thick lashes wet. "I'm sorry," she said, chin wobbling. "I didn't mean for your head to get hurt. I just… _miss_ you."

"Miss me?" Donna echoed, both baffled and touched. "Sweetheart, you don't even know me."

Indignation sparked in Suzy's eyes. "Course I do," she contradicted hotly. "I've heard _all_ about you. Sometimes Daddy even talks like you and...well, he says he doesn't like it when that happens. But I know he does, cos he misses you too."

Donna blinked. "He talks like me?"

Suzy's expression shifted toward mischievous. "Sometimes. He says it's not fair that the shouty lady in his head is the only part of him that will ever be ginger."

"What on earth is she on about?" Donna asked, as Rose snickered.

"Also, I know you from my dreams." Suzy tugged Donna's hand for her full attention. "I see you in them. You come home to the TARDIS-"

"Suzy," interrupted Rose firmly. "Not the time. Didn't I say we'd discuss that with Donna later, once your daddy gets here?"

"-and I know it's true, cos Daddy dreamed about Mummy coming home," Suzy continued in a rush, like she couldn't stop herself. "And it happened!"

"_Susan_."

Little nose scrunching guiltily, Suzy fell silent, still her eyes watched Donna, expectant. Clearly hoping Donna would push to continue the conversation, in spite of her mother's effort to shut it down. "You shouldn't go bringing things up when your mum's told you to wait," Donna told Suzy sternly. "Please go sit on the bed now, so us grown-ups can talk privately."

Suzy stilled, taken aback, but then she obeyed without a word of protest.

"So is that why she did what she did today?" Donna asked Rose, low, their heads bowed close together. "She came to meet me because that dream of hers means something?"

"To be honest, Donna… I doubt it. What Suzy said about the Doctor having a similar dream that came true, that was massively oversimplified. The TARDIS... she sees time, you know, and she gets in your head. In that way she's always helped the Doctor be where he's supposed to be, do what he's supposed to do. Yes, he did dream about me, which started _-started_\- a long, complicated sequence of events that eventually led to our being reunited. Sort of like...like if you forget your wallet one day and so a stranger kindly pays for your coffee, then you go out with him, and then one day you marry him. Sometimes things just happen. It doesn't mean forgetting your wallet was destiny."

Somehow, Donna did not feel entirely disheartened. "But it might be, especially if a cheeky time-ship nicked it from your purse. There _might_ be something to Suzy's dream."

"I don't know." Rose sighed, leaning back against Kate's desk. "The Doctor has tried to work out a solution to your problem for years, but…" Her face scrunched and she bit her lower lip, all apology.

"But what? C'mon, spit it out. It's 'impossible?' That what you meant to say?"

When Rose looked even more apologetic, Donna rolled her eyes.

"Well," she said huffily, "my last doubt about you being his wife just curled up and died. You actually _look_ like him right now, that's the same look he'd always get right before he'd start spewing the 'I'm so, so sorry's'. Well, you can save them for someone else, Mrs. Spaceman. Right along with your 'impossibles'."

Rose burst out laughing, managing to grimace at the same time. "I did sound like him just then, didn't I? How awful, I take back whatever I said. Thanks for the call out."

Donna grinned. "Anytime."

"He always loved that about you, you know," Rose went on, her eyes full of warmth. "How you would never let him give up."

Such potent praise made Donna's cheeks burn. "The Doctor and I, we're just equally stubborn, is all," she dismissed.

"See, we need you, Donna," Suzy chimed in from the bed, and when her mother shot her a look, pasted on an angelic expression. "I wasn't eavesdropping! You were talking at _normal_ voice-level, Mummy."

Rose considered her. "You know what, Suzy, I'm glad you drew my attention just now, because I've forgotten to ask you about something. When Sarah Jane phoned earlier, she says you traveled from her house to Chiswick in under twenty minutes. I wonder how you got there so quick?"

Going by Rose's tone, she wasn't actually wondering much at all. Suzy obviously knew this as well- eyes falling to her lap, she thrust a hand into a pocket of her dress, soon retrieving a large wristwatch with a brown leather band.

"How did you even manage to get ahold of this?" Rose quickly confiscated the item.

"T'was in a drawer of Daddy's nightstand."

Rose's brows shot up. "Seriously?!"

"What is it?" The thing looked vaguely familiar to Donna.

"A vortex manipulator." Rose rubbed the spot between her eyes. "It was Jack's. We came across it again a few years ago, when Suzy was a baby, and I didn't want it on the TARDIS. But the Doctor _promised_ me he would lock it up."

Donna stifled a laugh. By the looks of Rose, the Doctor was really going to hear it for that one. Donna dearly hoped she'd get to witness it.

"Excuse me, Rose?" Kate approached, holding out her earpiece. "The Doctor just came on, he wants to speak to you. He says he'd like to know what's wrong, and why you've been... ignoring him?"

Rose squeezed her eyes shut, as if summoning patience, and then jammed the device into her ear. "Hello, love, everything's fine, I've just been distracted is all… no, nope, um, nothing too major."

"Please find out how my Reese is," Donna whispered urgently.

"Well, Sarah Jane phoned, she'd had a little issue with Suzy. I'll explain later. Is Ree- I mean, are all the hostages still alright?" Donna's heart lurched for a moment until Rose caught her eye, smiling and nodding vigorously. "Well, you whinge too, when you get hungry, so have some compassion- yes, you do. Can't UNIT sneak in a few pizzas or something?"

Rose giggled silently and Donna chuckled behind her hand, amused and deeply, deeply relieved. Reese was safe and Rose was winding up the Doctor, just like Donna would always do on their own adventures. If there was joking and banter, things were never too dire, and suddenly, Donna felt the weight of every year that man had been absent from her life. God, she missed him. Missed his stupid gob and his stupid hair and the stupid way he'd look at her, like she was so special-

_Stupid_, Donna chastised herself.

"Well, I could," Rose was saying to him, picking up a pen from Kate's desk and fiddling with the cap. "But, did Kate tell you UNIT's been clamoring for one of us to come into HQ? Thought I might run over there for a bit… yeah, they said they've never seen the likes of that star-cruiser's shielding… of course they won't, Doctor, but you can't blame UNIT for trying to secure a back-up plan. Besides, if they know we've got the means to destroy their way home, don't you think those bookworms might be more willing to negotiate?"

A faint spluttering sound emanated from the tiny earpiece. "Sure I am," she went on with another grin for Donna, arms crossing. "M'not wasting my time trying to pronounce that gobbledygook you just said. Mine's perfect, I think, cos they love books and look like worms… yes they _do_, sort of. Oi! Listen, Doctor, I'm ringing off now- oh." She frowned, denting her chin with the pen's round bottom. "I dunno about that, I thought I really ought to go in to HQ...oh. Really? Alright, alright, yeah, you _do_ make a good point. Yes, I promise I'll hurry. I've just got one thing to finish up- ten minutes, max. Love you too."

The pen hit the desk with a small clatter. "Well, looks like I'm going in," Rose announced, tossing the earbud back to Kate. "The Doctor thinks I might have better luck getting them to see things our way."

Donna straightened. "I'm going with you."

"You can't," was the immediate reply, and Donna knew Rose had been readying herself for this battle. "For two reasons. "One- the creatures we're dealing are powerful telepaths, and they've got no qualms about getting in your head. You can't even think straight around them if you're human."

"_You're_ human," Donna pointed out.

"I'm a special case. Being married to the Doctor gives me certain advantages in that department. I'm protected. You won't be."

Her heartbeat quickened. "What about Reese? I thought you said she was alright?"

"She is," Rose and Kate assured simultaneously. "She and the others are grouped on the top floor in the computer lab," Kate explained. "As long as they stay there, out of the way, they're fine."

"But a couple hostages who've interfered," Rose added, "or tried to escape, they've been plagued with terrible hallucinations, and one's had their mind wiped. You can't risk that."

"Risk it? I've been practically _promised_ it," Donna retorted. "And hey, aren't there soldiers in there with him? Human soldiers? I swear I saw two or three go inside during the news report."

"Second," Rose ticked off her fingers. "We all want your daughter, the other hostages, and the rest of humanity to escape this situation unscathed, yeah? So the Doctor needs to be at his best. That means he cannot find out about you right now, Donna, I'm sorry."

For a moment Donna felt she'd prefer to have them platonic and pining, over this frankly unreasonable level of marital overprotection. "Look, Rose, I get that it will be a shock for him, seeing me again. He'll be upset and worried and maybe even a bit emotional, I've seen it all before, and you certainly have too. He can handle it. It's hardly going to incapacitate him."

Though Rose's skeptical expression remained, her eyes softened. "This is going to be a big deal, Donna, I don't think you realise."

I really don't, Donna thought privately. "The only big deal I see is my own child in trouble. Could you just sit back and wait, if it was Suzy? I've got to help. I _can_ help, as well as you can, it's not like I'll toddle in there and be useless! We've taken down flipping _Daleks_ together, remember? Besides," she added coolly, glancing at Kate, "it's not like I need permission from either of you. Associates of the Doctor automatically get full clearance. And I know you've got other people of yours in there; you're protecting them somehow."

"Telepathic disruptors," Rose admitted, a hint of a smile playing at her mouth. "Little device, sticks behind your ear and protects your brain."

Donna beamed at her. "Oh, there we go, that's the spirit!"

"Well, you'll have to ask Kate if you can borrow hers. They're tricky to make, and we don't have any extras."

The winning smile was turned on Kate, who returned it, and promptly handed her a thin blue device, the size and shape of a penny. It had no adhesive, but when Donna put it behind her ear as instructed it stayed put, though it stung a bit. "Like a bee-sting," she complained.

"All right, Donna Noble." Rose smoothed down her oversized jumper. "Let's dream-team this thing. Go get your coat."

Donna saluted. "Yes, ma'am!"

Necessary things gathered and goodbyes said, they were almost to the trailer's door when Rose abruptly halted and turned back. "Don't even think about it, Susan Jacqueline Tyler," she called out across the long space, pointing her finger in warning. "You're staying put. If you leave this trailer for even one second, I will know. Don't think I won't."

Slowly, Suzy eased back down onto the bed.

"I'll keep an eye on her," promised Kate.

As Donna and Rose stepped out into the early-evening, they found the military mayhem still going strong. Across the road and down, in a tall row of storefronts and residences, the library's top floor could be clearly seen above the chaos. Might Reese be at a window, watching? Impatience surged through Donna; she couldn't wait to get to her daughter, to enfold her in her arms. "It's gonna take forever to get through all this madness," she griped, following Rose. "Don't we need a pass or something?"

Rose shook her head and took hold of Donna's arm, weaving them swiftly around randomly parked jeeps, passing through groups of soldiers with a friendly smile, returning salutes left and right. The library's steps were barricaded by a metal fence, and Donna grinned at how its line of guards began to scurry like ants when they saw Rose coming, dragging the barrier apart to create a small opening. "I'm impressed," said Donna, as they ascended the short flight of steps alone. "We didn't even have to break stride. You've certainly got their respect, Mrs. Spaceman."

"It's the Doctor's fault." Rose rolled her eyes. "He won't cop to it, of course, but it's so obvious he did something. These poor people seem to feel they've got to give me the red carpet treatment, and it makes me crazy."

"Sounds like he hasn't changed much," commented Donna airily, as they came to the library's scuffed green door. "So what's the plan now, blondie? You want to run in first and tell him I'm here, or is it better if we both just-"

A hand clutched her wrist, and she blinked down at it. "Oh no, Donna." Rose sounded stricken. "I forgot, I didn't think."

Donna's gaze met Rose's, expectant and a little impatient. "Now what is it?"

"It's been nearly twenty years. Lots of things have happened. The Doctor _has_ changed."

"Changed?" Donna stared at her. "You mean he's…"

Rose nodded. "Regenerated."

A knot swelled in Donna's throat. Her manic, spiky-haired best friend...gone? It was nearly impossible to imagine, confusing and awful, but god, she didn't have time to blubber over it now. "Well," she said briskly, managing to shoot Rose half a grin. "Please tell me he hasn't got any skinnier."

"No, no," Rose chuckled. "Just a bit… chinnier."

Donna had no clue what to make of that.

"Listen…" Rose fiddled with the door's old iron handle. "I know it'll be hard enough, having him be so different. And then, like I said before, he may react quite badly once he sees you. I need you to be prepared for that, okay? Please try to remember it's only because he loves you so much."

Nostrils flaring, Donna clenched her eyes shut. Here she was, trying to keep it together, what with kidnapped daughters and unknown aliens and a looming reunion with someone who used to be dear, but now she's probably not even going to recognise him, plus he's going to be 'angry', and on top of all of that she has to hear how much he sodding loves her? _Her_? "He will be fine," she replied, curtly. "I'm not that special."

Rose's grip on her wrist did not ease. "Donna. Did Suzy tell you she has a baby sister?"

White static filled up Donna's ears. Oh yes, Suzy had, but Donna had forgotten all about it. Chucked it to the back of her brain like meaningless trivia, a silly statement from a stranger. _She was named after you. Probably. _

With context, though, it meant too much. Two hot tears rolled down Donna's cheeks. "She said… Suzy said her sister was called after me. Donna. That's not true, is it?"

"Yes. Donna Amelia Tyler."

As she gazed down at her tear-blurred shoes, Donna almost wanted to protest. For as much as she'd liked to poke fun at him, take him down a peg when she could, Donna had always been very aware that the Doctor was quite an important man. Powerful, alien, the savior of millions, renowned throughout the universe. It was bad enough, having to hear that he'd missed her. Out of the hundreds, perhaps thousands, of amazing friends he's had, why her? Why would he choose to name his own child after _Donna_?

"Is it because she's ginger?" she finally asked, voice quavering.

Rose let out a surprised laugh and pulled her into a hug. "Nope, though believe me, the Doctor is still hoping so hard for that. But right now, the peach fuzz she's got seems to be mostly blonde. We didn't call her after you because she looks like you, Donna, but because we love you. And we'd love for her to be like you."

Donna wiped her eyes. "Rose, you barely even know me."

"Well, I realise I only met you briefly, but in a way, you've been a constant in my life for years. The Doctor-Donna, remember? He was in your head, but you were also in his, just a bit. I feel like I know you incredibly well."

Still dabbing at tears, Donna smiled a little. "His gob and my lip, god. Dealing with that combo must've been a treat."

"Oh, it was." A creak, as Rose hauled the heavy door open, and Donna got a whiff of paper and ink. "C'mon. There's a private office just inside, the Doctor said to meet him-"

Her last word was lost, swallowed up by a heart-stopping scream from just beyond the door. Donna's gaze snapped to meet Rose's.

Then, identical grins stretched across both their faces.

"Oh," said Donna, as she and Rose rushed in. "I've _missed_ this."

* * *

"Of course," said the Doctor. "If it's your commander's direct order, Daniel, _of course_ you've got to follow it. Even though he's not here right now, and hasn't once laid eyes on this situation himself. Of course he knows better than me."

"I'm sorry, sir." Tall and impressive in his black military kit, Lieutenant Henderson stood in the middle of the children's room, looking like the answer to a _what does not belong?_ puzzle, surrounded by cartoonish posters and games and picture books. "But he insists I join Sargeant Wilcox in observing the alien activity on the main floor. He wants a second set of eyes on the situation."

"_I'm_ a second set of eyes. The _best_ set of eyes."

"Yes, but…" Daniel snuck a look at the Doctor's makeshift radio equipment, strewn messily across the top of a bright yellow, undersized table. "You're busy with other things, sir."

"Right, well, only because the Blianwilgathworty are _boring_ right now. Until they've finished with all those books -and that's hours away, mind- there won't be anything _to_ see, not unless I can convince their queen to talk to me again. But at least they're quiet and predictable, which is far more than I can say for those idiot lads upstairs in the computer lab. Who now have _zero_ eyes on them."

As if to prove his point, raucous young male laughter echoed from directly above. The Doctor turned his scowl on the ceiling.

The young soldier toed a polished boot against the colourfully-patterned carpet. "I've got to follow orders, sir."

"And in the meantime, I suppose we'll just hope and pray that your fellow humans won't do anything more to aggravate the scary naked monsters downstairs. One hostage in a vegetative state is plenty enough for me."

Without daring to reply (or salute him, for that matter), Lieutenant Henderson made his escape, boots clomping on the wooden stairs that led down to the main area of the library.

The foot-clomps coming from above were even louder and the Doctor huffed, stalking over to a window. _Are you almost here?_ he whinged at Rose through their bond, trying and failing to spot her blonde head amongst the commotion outside. _What's taking so long? I need you. My other help is useless._

_You're lucky I was able to convince Kate that you didn't need lots more of the useless help_.

Shifting a step to the left, the Doctor pressed his thumb to the loosened corner of a Peppa Pig and friends poster (such familiar faces all, these days), re-adhering it to the wall. _Well then, my sanity and I thank you. _Already he felt much calmer, just at having Rose's voice in his head. _Suppose that means I owe you one, eh?_ he tacked on suggestively, grinning as he turned his back on Peppa. His wife never failed to pounce on such statements. He was quite eager to learn exactly how she would make him "pay up" later.

Those were debts he never reneged on.

_Rose?_ he prodded a few seconds later, when she still hadn't answered.

_M'almost there, Doctor, blimey but you're impatient today._

His anticipatory grin dropped into an full-on frown, as he suddenly felt quite neglected and put-out. _Well, forgive me for missing you._

Her contrition instantly filled his head. _M'sorry, love, I didn't mean to snap at you. I'm just… distracted._

_With what? UNIT still arguing with you?_

_No, no. It's just, something unexpected came up. Something big._

_What is it? _

It took her a few moments to answer. _Too complicated to explain like this. But you'll… you'll know everything in a minute. Can you possibly meet me without any other people around?_

His curiosity surged to a ten out of ten, yet a sudden nervous stomach prevented him prodding her any further. _How about in the office just inside the main entrance?_

_Alright, see you in a mo'._

The Doctor slumped back against a set of bookshelves, exhaling. A distracted Rose, walling him out of her thoughts, needing to tell him something face to face...hadn't they'd been down this path before?

Twice.

With a groan, he palmed his face. No, no no no, she couldn't possibly be pregnant again. Could she? Ever since DJ had been born they'd been so careful, he was sure. Well. Mostly sure-

An air-splitting shriek from the floor below interrupted his train of thought, and the Doctor was almost grateful for it as he dashed for the staircase.

Another scream, and then another, the sound of pure, shrill terror, and the Doctor's hearts beat fast as he leapt down the last three steps in one great bound. Skidding a little, he rounded the corner into the library's small lobby and nearly collided with soldiers Henderson and Bealy, who were attempting to wrangle the panic-stricken librarian, Mrs. Turner, into the stairwell.

"What in blazes is she doing down here, Daniel?!" he shouted over the poor woman's cries. "You said she was the one keeping everybody else in line!"

Henderson didn't answer, too busy being pelted by the librarian's flailing arms. Despite being roughly twice their age and half their size, Mrs Turner was putting up an impressive fight against the two men, and screaming herself almost hoarse. Swamped with sympathy, the Doctor set his jaw and made a quick, hard choice, then strode over to press two fingers to her right temple.

Loose tendrils of grey hair fell over her face as she slumped in Lt. Henderson's arms, eyelids fluttering closed. Sudden silence rang in the Doctor's ears.

"I don't like having to do that," he said coldly, to Henderson and Bealy's startled faces. "But at least she's no longer hallucinating. Now, will one of you please explain why this poor woman is not up in the computer lab where she's safe?"

"I don't know, sir, I'm sorry-"

Fed up, the Doctor flung his hands out. "It's been five minutes, Daniel! You left those civilians on their own and that's all it took, five bloody minutes for all hell to break loose. Both of you, give over your comms. From this point forward, I'm the _only_ person giving orders around here."

"You sure about that?" called a voice- the most delightful voice in the universe. Spirits instantly lifting, the Doctor turned to look and there she was- his Rose, waggling her fingers in greeting from across the room. Donna hovered behind her, looking pensive.

"Took you long enough," he replied, all fond adoration, before rounding on the soldiers again. "You two. Get Mrs Turner back upstairs before she wakes up. Make sure she's comfortable. And then stay up there; I want you _both_ supervising those civilians. My wife and I are about to resume negotiations with the Blianwilgathworty, and we don't need any more distractions, you hear?"

Henderson nodded, sliding an arm under the limp librarian's knees in order to carry her. But Bealy scratched his chin, hesitant. "But...who will stand guard, and prevent the aliens from escaping the building?" he asked.

The Doctor gestured left with his thumb. "I've got Donna here now. She's brilliant, she'll sort 'em. Wouldn't be surprised if she shouts them right off the planet-"

As his own words registered the Doctor's breath caught, his bones and flesh turning to ice. Five eternal seconds passed, and then his eyes regained mobility, making a slow, reluctant sideways shift. Squeezing shut at the barest glimpse of red hair like flames.

Warm, familiar fingers threaded with his. "Doctor," said Rose quietly. "It's alright."

He shook his head with vigor, even as he allowed his tightly-clenched eyes to slowly slit open.

A blurred figure came into focus, and the Doctor gasped again. _Donna_. It was Donna, his Donna -ginger locks, porcelain skin, kind eyes- standing right here in front of him, as mute as he was, reciprocating his dumbfounded stare.

Ever so slowly, the Doctor lifted his hand into the air, stretched out one experimental finger. Poked it into the center of her forehead.

She was warm, fleshy.

Annoyed. "Oi!"

"_No_," said the Doctor, cringing in horror. "Oh no. I'm hallucinating."

"Doctor-"

Rose looked startled as he spun to face her. "Rose, I'm hallucinating," he repeated in a panicked undertone, grabbing her just above her elbows. "It's those naked pink buggers in the other room, they've somehow got into my head!" Jerking his chin to the left, he bid her to look, carefully avoiding doing so himself. "I see her right there," he went on, hearts still pounding like mad. "She's right next to me. I see _Donna_!"

As Rose opened her mouth to answer, a familiar voice cut in, clear and loud and _close_. "That's right, and I see a _dumbo_ in a blinking bow-tie!"

Gaze snapping her way, the Doctor was astonished to find his old friend glaring fire at him, her finger pointed directly at his face. "You know, at first I wasn't so sure it was you either, Spaceman! But there's nobody else who could be so completely _bonkers!"_


	3. Chapter 3

"Donna?" The Doctor stared, hands falling limp at his sides. "You...you're real? Really real?"

Her hazel eyes softened, then rolled in fond exasperation, a gesture that was so her, so very Donna-ish, it did more to convince him than any verbal assurance could. If she wasn't 'really real', he was having one hell of a hallucination.

"But you…" Inching closer, he bent his face to hers, all nerves and twitchy fingers. "You know who I am?"

Donna scrutinised him right back, her expression going a bit unsure as she mapped out his hair, his eyes, the slope of his jaw. "Just said so, didn't I?" she replied, after a few tenuous moments. "Dumbo."

Her tone got him, so sincere and gentle, causing the Doctor to suck a quick breath and impulsively throw his arms around her. "Donna Noble," he whispered, getting the air squeezed from his lungs by her equally fierce return hug, all warmth and curves and honey-lemon scent. Familiar and _right_.

"See, told ya," he heard Rose say, chokily. "She's real."

"Really real," agreed the Doctor as Donna drew away, smiling up at him and wiping her eyes. Drinking in her beloved face through the blur of his own tears, he offered a return smile that felt crooked and daft.

Meanwhile, his hands came up of their own accord, beginning to wring as if they knew something he didn't. "Wait," he said, as his pulse went all erratic again, hyping up because Donna was here and real, and that was _bad. Bad bad bad bad bad_. "You can't. You can't just _be_ here, you can't know me, you'll burn-"

Rose's warm hands grabbed his, stilling them, tendrils of her determined calm infiltrating his body and mind. "Kate gave her the injection, Doctor. She's okay."

Still rather pop-eyed, his gaze swung back to Donna. "I'm okay," she reiterated with a curt nod, arms crossed over her chest, like she was brooking no arguments. "You can worry about me later, once my daughter is safe."

Bewilderment joined the jangle of noise in his head. "What do you mean, 'once your daughter's safe'?"

"I mean she's here too, Doctor, right here in this building. She's a hostage."

"A hostage?" Nothing she was saying made sense.

Donna nodded, earnest and worried. "Yes."

"So that's why you're here?"

A tiny, impatient huff. "Yes. I saw the library on telly, what was happening here, and came after my child like any mum would."

Peering at her from beneath a furrowed brow, the Doctor tried hard to absorb this. "So you're saying that all of this," he waved a finger around, toward Rose and himself then to Donna and Donna's head, "is nothing more than a, a coincidence?"

When Donna nodded again the Doctor shook his head, eyes squeezing tight. It was a bit much to believe, but hardly the most pressing issue at the moment. "Okay, okay. And how long ago did you have the injection?"

"Less than an hour."

Abruptly pacing away across the tile, the Doctor bought a minute to gather himself and mull things over logically. On reaching the magazine rack on the opposite wall, he turned around to face the women. "Four hours," he said, soberly. "That's all the longer we've got, Donna, until your body fully metabolizes that inhibitor. Four hours, five at most. And that's only if you don't go using that brain of yours too much."

"Can't promise," Donna replied with a faint grin. "Either way, we've plenty of time to sort things here first. Right?"

"Right?" echoed Rose. Side by side, his wife and Donna stared him down as he silently approached them, and the slow clack of his boot-soles seemed loud in the library's small foyer. How could they be so blasé about this? How could they just expect his blithe agreement, for him to spring into action, like this was _normal_, the three of them teaming up to take on yet another crisis?

Donna being here already felt normal, he had to admit; so much so that it was a struggle to not get all weepy over it. Stupid, irrational emotions. Insisting that all was right with the universe now that Donna was back, when his pragmatic side knew full well it wasn't. Blimey, he'd gone so soft these last few years, the old, thick barricade round his hearts worn down to near non-existence. Precious hours with Donna were his for the taking. Yet what right had he to risk her life? Although, he had even less right to go against her direct wishes, and she was certainly making it clear that-

"Right?" Donna repeated, voice raised in an annoyed half-shout, but it was the note of underlying fear that stilled his steps. Her expression was wary, like she didn't quite trust him, and whether that had more to do with his new face or his old track record, the Doctor didn't know. Either way, it stung.

Brow creasing with apology, he hastened to agree. "Right, yes. Sorry. I'm just…"

"Spiraling?" suggested Rose, and smirked at the dirty look he gave her.

"_No_." He cleared his throat. "Well. A bit. Perhaps." Meeting Donna's eye, the Doctor straightened his spine, forcing his hands to his sides so they wouldn't wring. Graceful and smooth, he could do that. Be more like the Doctor she remembered. "I can't help it. I might be brilliant at saving the literal world, but when a threat's personal…" He swallowed. "That's loads harder."

"It's like that for all of us," replied Donna, too matter-of-factly for his liking. His chin jutted.

"Yes, however, not everyone's got _both_ going on in one day, so a little slack would be nice."

Concerned lines appeared on Donna's forehead. "The world's ending? Again?"

"It's trying to."

"Well," she replied with a toss of red hair, "are we doing something about that, then? Or have you decided you'd prefer to stand around this lobby and moan and fuss about my head?"

It was incredibly sarcastic, yet kind, all at once, and pulled him outside himself for an instant of much-needed clarity. The Doctor felt a smile appear on his lips as he took her in anew, all fiery hair and eyes and spirit. "Donna Noble, setting me straight." He shook his head in wonder. "I just can't believe you're really here."

"Yeah, noticed that," she quipped, visibly relaxing. "And I've got to say, with all this change, it's sort of reassuring to see you're just as daft as ever."

His smile grew. "Handsome as ever, too, eh?"

"Just ask you," Donna snorted. "Blimey, and here I'd thought the skinny you was vain. What, was mid-thirties too old-looking or something? You had to go and transform into _this_?"

"Into what?" Looking down at himself, the Doctor couldn't help but admire his lovely long coat as he smoothed it, the purple fabric extra-rich in the room's warm light.

"A child."

Instantly indignant, the Doctor gaped at her. "I am over twelve-hundred years old."

"Yeah, whatever, you still look like your dad drove you here."

Rose began to giggle, her delight in this conversation unhidden and also, in the Doctor's opinion, completely unwarranted. "Oi, you look young too, you know," he informed his wife, darkly.

"It's true," Donna agreed, with a sage nod. "Suppose that's also your doing, eh Spaceman?"

A snort escaped Rose, which was all the confirmation Donna needed, apparently.

The Doctor glared at both of them. "Any other criticisms?"

"Oh, come off it." Donna gave his arm a playful smack. "You know you look fantastic. Better than me," she added with a sigh. "I've only gotten older."

She actually meant that, the Doctor noted. "Not by much," he insisted, frowning. "You're fantastic, too. Brilliant, even. Maybe even better than I rememb-"

"All right now," Donna cut in. "Don't overdo it."

Smirking, he straightened his lapels. "You complimented me first."

"Yeah, well, you can put an asterisk on that. I'm not a fan of the bow-tie."

Now it was his turn to laugh a little, Rose joining in as they shared a knowing glance.

"What's so funny?" Donna gave them an odd look.

"Oh," Rose began, and the Doctor's arm found her waist as she fit herself against his side. "It's just that you've no idea how many times the Doctor has looked at me as he's dressing in the morning to say, 'Don't you reckon Donna would absolutely hate this bow-tie?'"

Instead of returning their smiles, Donna stiffened a little, looking uncomfortable.

Rose reached a hand out to pat her. "Yes, Donna, we talked about you. We've _missed_ you. It's not a bad thing."

"That's a weird thing to say." The Doctor glanced down at his wife. "Why would us missing Donna be a bad thing? We were close," he tacked on before he thought better of it, and as his eyes met Donna's sudden vulnerability crept over him. "Weren't we? You used to say I was your best friend all the time."

Surprise widened Donna's eyes. "Yes, but… I don't know. I guess I never imagined I was yours."

"Oh dear, didn't I ever say?"

When Donna only shrugged, Rose began to rub comforting circles against the small of his back. "I'm sorry, Donna," the Doctor said. "I was in a bad place, back then. So afraid of everything, especially of letting people know how much I cared about them. I do better now. Just ask Rose; I tell her I love her all the time. Even married her to prove it. Did she mention?"

This got him a genuine smile from Donna, and another excellent eye-roll. "That wedding ring of hers is so flashy I think people could tell she was married from space. Did that on purpose, didn't you?"

He smiled smugly, brows raising.

"And I hear you're a dad again."

His favourite subject, brought up out of nowhere by one of his favourite people, yet all the Doctor felt was profound disappointment. Hand sliding from the dip in Rose's waist to take hold of her elbow, the Doctor turned her to look her in the eye. "Really, Rose? You had to go and tell her _all_ our news without me?"

Rose blinked up at him. "I'm sorry, love, but… well, it sort of couldn't be helped." Her teeth found her bottom lip as she (all too obviously) tried to bite back a smile- which rendered her apology null and void, in his mind. Scowling, the Doctor looked over at Donna. "How many kids did she tell you about? Two? Or _three_?"

"Three?" echoed both women at once, and then a beat later Rose laughed. "Oh my god, Doctor, I am not pregnant. Why is that the conclusion you always jump to?"

"I don't...you're not?...what was all that about earlier then, when you were so distracted and wanting to talk to me in private?"

A fond eye-roll, then Rose shifted her gaze pointedly to Donna. "Give ya one guess."

"Oh," he said lamely, though relief greatly outweighed his embarrassment. "Right."

Donna wore a wide grin, hugely entertained. "Oh, I bet you were fun when she really was pregnant. Especially the first time around. If you're so keen to catch me up on the latest gossip, Spaceman, those are the stories I really want to hear."

"Oh, ha ha."

"It's a promise," Rose told Donna, though her tongue-dotted grin was aimed straight at him. "Soon as we save the world. And your daughter, of course."

Chuckling, Donna glanced toward the doorway leading to the stairwell. "I'd like to run upstairs and see her now, if that's alright."

"Yes, of course," the Doctor replied, folding his hands and mentally picking through the group of humans being supervised by Henderson and Bealy. Twenty-two of them in all, including the librarian, thirteen female and nine male. Five of the latter were a pack of teen boys (unfortunately), but only four of the females were young enough to be Donna's daughter. Yet as the Doctor cast his mind back, he couldn't pinpoint any of them as being loud enough, brilliant enough, or even ginger enough to belong to her. "What's her name, again?"

"Reese Temple."

His face scrunched, but he was unable to place her until Rose helped him out.

"Teenage girl," she said. "The pretty one with the long, curly dark hair."

"What," said Donna, sounding irritated, "you didn't even bother to ask her name? Since when don't you take an interest in the people you're trying to save?"

"He always does," Rose defended, her hand squeezing his arm. "S'just things were really precarious when we first arrived. See, these aliens, the Bookworms, they're awful parasites, and UNIT called us in just barely in time to stop them invading far more than this little library. C'mon, you should have a look."

Nodding to the double doors that separated the lobby from the main area of the library, Rose led Donna over. One door stood ajar, propped open a small rubber wedge, and as Donna got her first glimpse into the next room the Doctor heard her gasp.

"Just be glad they're not 100% humanoid," he commented, coming up behind the women and catching sight of Donna's wrinkled nose. "Nudity is far more off-putting when the obvious bits are...well. Obvious." He cleared his throat, tugging at his bow-tie. "Thankfully, it's the one way the Blianwilgathworty are rather worm-like, as Rose likes to claim, even though they've arms and legs and a head, oh, and _bones_. And it's not like their species' proper name is that difficult to pronounce-"

"Who cares about clothes, Doctor, they've got no _mouths_," said Donna in an undertone, eyes locked on the dozen or so strange, pink-skinned, hairless creatures as they moved on silent feet amongst the rows of tall shelves, long-fingered hands removing book after book. "It's creepy."

She did have a point, he had to admit, though it was their cold, soulless eyes that really gave him the shivers. Windows to emptiness, they were, displaying an insatiable hunger, housed inside spindly bones and delicate skin.

Donna spoke again, her fingertips white where they pressed against the doorframe. "It's like they don't even notice us. They're just flipping pages, they're not doing anything. Are they even reading those books?"

"No," the Doctor answered. "They're harvesting."

"Harvesting?"

"Harvesting information. They're not here to learn, Donna. To them, all of this fresh data, this new, alien information, it's food. Energy. They swarm in, just like ants or bees, gather up all that they can, and carry it back to their home to feast on later. And once that happens, it's too late. It's eaten, digested, gone."

"Gone? Like…"

"Like, if we allow them to leave this planet with nothing more than, say, knowledge of little bunny rabbits, all of you humans will wake up the next morning completely mystified by the sudden proliferation of some strange, long-eared, furry creatures in your gardens. No one will know what they are."

Donna looked at him, horrified. "The internet. Oh god, if they access that they could steal our knowledge of everything, people could even forget each other if the aliens find our social media and things-"

"We shut it down before they got a chance," Rose told her quickly, urging her away from the doorway. "That's why there's no working tech in this neighborhood. We've blocked all access to the internet."

"But they've still got books, and that's bad enough," the Doctor added grimly. "As I mentioned, we can't let them leave here with _any_ information. The effects could be devastating." Unbidden, his gaze returned to the creatures, their seeking and gathering, so animal-like in their single-minded hunt for sustenance. "I don't want to hurt them. They're merely following orders, doing what comes natural."

"What could possibly be natural about it?"

"Well, the Blianwilgathworty used to be scavengers; saw them quite a lot during the Time War. When a species died out they'd clean up, harvest their accomplishments and knowledge, help them live on, in a way. They're not supposed to go after living planets."

"Anyway," he went on, "their queen and her council are still on the ship, orbiting Earth and waiting, and they're the ones we've got to convince to leave. And I can't get them to take me seriously in the negotiations." The Doctor met Rose's eyes. "You'll do better at persuading them, love. Ready to give it a go?"

Rose threaded her fingers with his, and they smiled at each other. "Ready if you are."

"After you check on your daughter, Donna," the Doctor said, glancing to the stairs, "you can meet us up on the first floor. I've got telepathic communications equipment set up in the childrens' wing. Just make sure she doesn't follow you."

"Why not, she won't get in the way."

"Because the Blianwilgathworty won't harm any hostages, so long as they stay put on the second floor. That's the agreement."

"But-"

"You can introduce us all later," he went on, hoping to sidestep an argument and get on with things. "You can tell your daughter how nice I am."

Donna eyed him in sudden suspicion. "Why, does she not think you're nice?"

"How should I know?" The Doctor put effort into making his shrug extra casual. "Things were a bit...hectic, when we got here. Rose told you that already."

"'Were' hectic," she echoed, eyes narrowing further, "or you made them hectic?"

His fingers found the fine chain on his waistcoat, plucking at it nervously. "I…"

A snicker interrupted their small standoff. Donna shifted her glare to Rose, who continued to grin, not bothering to hide her enjoyment in the least. As the Doctor marveled at his wife's bravery, Donna let out a loud huff and then brushed past both of them, stomping up the stairs.

The Doctor turned to Rose with an exasperated shake of his head. "Is this so fun for you?"

He knew it was a stupid question, even before a bit of pink tongue appeared in her grin. "C'mon, Doctor, I've been watching you battle your inner Donna for years. Finally getting to see it all play out, live and in full colour, right in front of me? It's not only fun, it's bloody fantastic."

"Cheeky," he complained, but couldn't help leaning into her all the same, in order to plant a firm kiss on her teasing, alluring mouth. "But I suppose you're right, a bit." Sighing, the Doctor sobered. "If only it could end well."

Rose smoothed back his hair, her eyes softening. "It can, my love. Have hope."

* * *

Halfway up the third flight of stairs, Donna took a rest against the cool wall, trying not to breathe through her nose. The smoky, burnt plastic odor was nearly overpowering here.

"Oh, what did you do, Doctor," she muttered, although she wasn't near as irritated as she probably ought to be. It was practically one of the Time Lord's core traits, his inability to resist making a great big noisy spectacle of himself if given half a chance. It was familiar. Today, anything familiar was good.

Young male laughter greeted Donna as she reached the landing, the rather obnoxious sound reassuring her a little as she tiptoed over to peek through the computer lab's doorway. Semi-scorched computer monitors, screens broken and cracked, sat in untidy rows atop three (equally scorched) long tables directly in front of her. Nearly all the chairs had been pulled away to form small, scattered groupings along the edges of the room, and the air was full of the sound of conversation. Several youngish women and men hung out near the bookshelves straight ahead; in one corner, a handful of grey-haired ladies sat in a circle with fanned-out playing cards. Others sat alone with books, or stood chatting in pairs. Though the overall air of things was rather subdued, Donna was glad that everyone seemed to be coping okay.

Laughter erupted again at her right, and Donna glanced over to find a few teen boys sprawled on the floor, playfully wrestling game pieces around a Snakes and Ladders board. But where was her Reese?

Buoyant relief filled Donna as she stepped fully into the room and spotted her daughter at last, sitting in a chair at the row of the building's front windows. Curls trailing down her back, long enough to brush the top of her high-waisted jeans, Reese faced away from Donna, gazing down at the mad goings-on on the street below.

Wary of startling her, Donna began a quiet approach, no one seeming to notice her presence but the two UNIT soldiers she'd seen downstairs earlier. She smiled at them, receiving a respectful nod and salute from each as reply.

Donna knelt beside Reese's chair, bestowing a careful touch to her forearm. "Reese."

Reese's gaze snapped her way. "Mum?" she mouthed, brown eyes huge with disbelief, and then she flung her arms around Donna's neck just like she used to do when she was tiny. Overcome, Donna drew a shaky breath as she wrapped her girl up tight.

"Mum, how on earth did you get in here?" Reese's whisper was a bit frantic-sounding as she drew back to look at her mother.

"Long story." Donna gave her a weak smile. "I'm so glad to see you're alright."

"Yeah, but Mum," Reese continued, words still rushing out fast, "those awful-looking creatures downstairs, they've got this trippy gas, Mrs. Turner-" she indicated the older woman laying on the floor across the room, her head on a pillow- "she just tried sneaking outside and then she was screaming bloody murder before going unconscious and then those soldiers carried her back up here, and so I don't know how-"

"Darling, it's okay, they didn't see me."

"But they don't need to see you to..." Abruptly, Reese paused, her gaze moving past Donna and sharpening. "Those soldiers." She nodded toward the two uniformed men at the door. "That's the story they've told us, anyway. That the creatures aren't actually creatures, just people in costumes meant to scare us, and we've only seen weird stuff because they've got this gas that makes people hallucinate, you'll have a living nightmare if you get too close, but… I don't know. If that's true, how could you sneak past them? So much of this doesn't add up."

Oh, her girl was clever. It was hard for Donna not to grin. "Really?" she pressed, trying to sound casual. "What else is there?"

After a slight hesitation, Reese leaned in, her mouth near Donna's ear. "There's something wrong about those creatures for one thing, the way their bodies are proportioned. And they're all built exactly the same. Like, how is that even possible? And then, why is there an entire army surrounding this place? An army, not police, except for-" Reese cut off with a quick breath, and Donna looked sharply over to see her gazing at the far wall, pony-tailing her hair with a hand.

Gently stroking her daughter's arm, Donna managed to remain outwardly calm whilst inwardly cursing stupid, show-off Time Lords. "Except what? What happened?"

"They said it was just the gas, making us see things."

"Sweetheart, what did you see?"

"You'll never believe it."

"Try me."

Reese slumped, dropping her fistful of hair. "It was this...box. Like a phone box, only it was blue, with 'Police' on a sign over the door. It just appeared out of thin air, right next to the loo over there, making this awful noise."

"And then?"

"Then this…this man, he burst out of it, shouting and shouting for us to hurry and throw our phones on the floor, that he was only giving us ten seconds to do it and go huddle by the wall, cos he was gonna blow them all to bits."

Reese licked her lips, they were looking semi-chapped. "Then he took out this thing that looked exactly like a magic wand, and pointed it, and next second all the mobiles were exploding, plus all the computers too. There was smoke and fire and bits of glass flying everywhere. A few people freaked out. Though those idiot boys over there seemed to find it hilarious."

"I noticed the broken monitors right off," muttered Donna, as she pulled a lip balm from her pocket. She handed it to Reese. "Do the others actually believe it wasn't real?"

"I don't know." Reese uncapped the small tube, and absently glided it over her lips. "They seem to, even though the evidence otherwise is right here."

"Humans see what they want to see." It fell out of Donna's mouth without thought.

Reese gave her a funny look. "Yeah, I suppose. Anyway, after the smoke cleared a little, this blonde woman came out of the box, and she was apologising to us, and then she made the man bin all the broken phones." With the lip balm, Reese indicated a wastebasket near one of the tables. "Then they went downstairs together."

"What happened to the box?"

"Don't know," she shrugged. "It sat there for awhile, then faded away. Which means that either it _was_ a hallucination, or…"

"Or?"

Reese's gaze lingered on Donna's for a moment, steady and steely and somewhat defiant, but she said nothing.

"Or," prompted Donna, "maybe it was... alien?"

"Well, yeah." Reese looked at Donna like she didn't quite know what to make of her. "And maybe the creatures downstairs are real aliens, too. 'S a better explanation than the daft one they've been feeding us."

A smile played at the edges of Donna's mouth as she managed a solemn nod, fit to burst with pride. Her child had sussed out the truth, all on her own, even when it went against popular belief and those in authority. The Doctor was going to be so impressed-

Uh oh, concluded the thought, as she noticed how Reese's eyes had narrowed in on her, the sudden tightness of her jaw, how the lovely warm camaraderie had vanished from the air between them. "God," said Reese, in the impatient, accusatory tone Donna knew well. "You didn't mean it, you're only having a laugh, aren't you? I don't know why I bother trying to talk to you."

"No, I wasn't-"

"You know, you never explained how you're even here." Reese spat, under her breath. "It makes no sense, there's no way all those soldiers outside just let you just swan on in. Did you follow me here, earlier? You did, didn't you, you had to have! You've been here this whole time. I needed to be alone and you didn't respect that!"

"No, darling, I only came when I saw the library on the news-"

"Oi, Mum, just _don't_. They've only risked having two soldiers in the building cos it's so dangerous, but sure, they'll just open the door right up for somebody's mum! You've probably been hiding out all along, you can't have seen those things downstairs or you'd be scared out of your mind, I know you, you don't even like to watch films about aliens! Honestly, I can't believe we're even having a coherent conversation as it-"

A sharp gasp from Reese as her gaze suddenly lifted, her eyes gone round and frightened as if she beheld some terrible apparition.

"Well," a (somewhat) familiar voice drawled behind Donna. "This seems quite... intense. So sorry to interrupt. Sort of sorry."

From where she knelt on the carpet beside Reese's chair, Donna swiveled sideways to glare up at the Doctor, intending to tell him off for putting such a look on her daughter's face.

A grating yell rang out. "Oh yeah, look, he's back, do you lot see him?" The kid's wispy mustache looked just like Donna's nan's. "Another hallucination!"

A chorus of pubescent laughs from his friends. "Just in time to keep us from getting dead bored," a second boy added, his grinning mouth riddled with silvery braces.

"That gas is _good stuff,_" announced the one who had his stupid cap on backwards. "You sure we can't take a bit home after this is over, hey, Bealy?"

The soldier, Bealy, shook his head in reprimand. The rest of the room, as Donna now noticed, had gone silent. Dozens of eyes were trained on the Doctor, faces sporting all levels of worry.

Rising to her feet, Donna thought fast. "Hello, everyone," she addressed the group, voice carefully clear and loud and authoritative. "I'm happy to see you're all doing alright. I'm Donna Noble, and this is the Doctor; we're… special agents, here to help resolve this unfortunate situation. Everything is under control, and _no_, you're not hallucinating this, I promise."

"In fact," Donna continued, suddenly inspired, "the Doctor's only popped in to find out what sort of pizza you lot like best, since I don't think we'll quite manage to get you home in time for tea." Bestowing a warm, reassuring smile on everyone, Donna surreptitiously kicked the Doctor in the shin.

"Ow! What was that for?"

"For scaring my daughter," Donna hissed through her smile. "Now go, ask these poor people what kind of pizza they want."

"What?" The Doctor peered at her from under his swoop of thick hair, those deep-set green eyes of his utterly baffled, as if Donna were speaking the only language he'd never bothered to learn.

Taking hold of his elbow, Donna began to physically move him. "Everybody's hungry, and they're also scared of you, thanks to the little pyrotechnics stunt you pulled earlier. Go on now and take their pizza orders, it'll help smooth things over. Try to act like a normal person."

"But I need to talk to you-"

"Blimey, are you deaf? It'll take you two measly minutes, it's not like I'm going anywhere."

One last, incredulous look from the Doctor, and then he actually moved to obey. Donna watched him flit over to the two soldiers, grab the taller, blonder one, and haul him along by the arm toward the group of elderly people in the corner.

Satisfied, Donna turned back to Reese. "What kind of pizza do you fancy, sweetheart? Up for some ham with pineapple tonight?"

The utterly baffled look Reese gave her mirrored the one she'd just received from the Doctor. "Mum, what's going on?"

A sheepish smile. "Like I said before, long story."

"But you...you know that man?"

"Yes. Well, I used to, anyway. Long time ago."

"But... he's the one who came out of that weird box, he blew up all the phones and computers. You didn't see his face when he did it, Mum, his _eyes_. There's something off about him."

"I understand what you mean, love, but I promise you, he's a good man. And he's the cleverest person I've ever seen, though don't tell him I said that. He's going to save us, I promise."

Her reassurances didn't seem to help; if anything, Reese's bewilderment only intensified. "Why do you make it sound like you've been in this sort of situation before?"

"That's easy," the Doctor chimed in, from over Donna's shoulder. "It's because she has been. Heaps of times, loads, gobs, scads-"

"Okay, okay," said Donna, shifting over to include him. "Why are you back over here already? You can't be finished getting everyone's pizza orders."

The Doctor waved that away. "Oh, Daniel is taking good care of that, I delegated. Now, if I recall, you promised you'd introduce me to your daughter."

Donna sighed. "Fine. Doctor, this is Reese. Reese, meet the Doctor."

Snatching Reese's hand, the Doctor shook it vigorously whilst treating her to a warm, handsome grin. For the moment, Donna had to admit the picture he was presenting was rather male model-ish, all tall and fit and attractive, his hair lush and styled, his outfit eye-catchingly sharp. Practiced charm rolled off him in waves.

Donna itched to give him a second kick.

However, Reese, for her part, actually looked a bit charmed, a slow return smile spreading across her face.

"See, darling," said Donna, patting her arm. "He's not so scary. In fact, once you really get to know him, you'll come to find he's mostly just rude."

The Doctor's grin turned impish. "Right, that's me, rude and not ginger. Good thing too," he tacked on, leaning conspiratorially toward Reese, "cos your mum holds the title in the rude _and_ ginger category, and you know how she doesn't like any competition."

He laughed uproariously at his own joke while Reese giggled and Donna groaned.

"So, your name's Reese, eh?" the Doctor prattled on, carefully pronouncing her name as if testing it out. "Very cool, if a tad unusual. I assume it's after Reese Witherspoon?" he said, in an aside to Donna.

"Yes."

"Ooh, thought so, you were always such a big fan of hers."

"You can't really think it's cool to name a kid after some dumb actress," Reese blurted in flat disbelief (though, to her credit, she did not call it 'unimaginative and shallow'. Donna was almost impressed at her restraint).

Though his smile didn't fade, the Doctor's eyes narrowed ever so slightly. "Oh yes," he proclaimed breezily, "I think it's the coolest. You know, Rose believes our daughter Susan is called after my granddaughter, however, joke's on her, it's also after Susan Sarandon. Brilliant actress, and a ginger to boot."

"Yes, yes, that's lovely," Donna dismissed, not unappreciative of the somewhat chastened look he'd put on her child's face, but also fairly sure he was lying. "Speaking of Rose, why'd you leave her to do the negotiating all on her own?"

The Doctor's smile vanished, and he herded them closer to the wall so as not to be overheard. "Because I had to do- turns out, the Blianwilgathworty society is strictly matriarchal. I couldn't get their queen to take me seriously at all, no matter what I said. Just because I'm male. Can you imagine?"

Donna gave him a withering look.

He grimaced, contrite. "Right, sorry."

"So what happens if Rose can't talk her round either? Is there a plan B?"

"UNIT says plan B is to blow their ship out of the sky, so let's just say I'm quite committed to plan A. But we shouldn't talk about this here," he added quickly, glancing around. "Children's wing is one floor down, I've set up shop there. C'mon you two, let's go see how Rose is getting on."

"Wait a second, so now you're saying Reese _can_ come along?"

A pause, as the Doctor gave Reese a look-over with eyes that were suddenly quite alien and fathomless. "Suppose I sort of assumed she was brilliant, like you," he replied at last, his eyes still strange as they made a sideways shift to meet Donna's. "Why, isn't she?"

Taken aback, Donna frowned. "Of course she is. I just meant," she touched the telepathic disruptor adhered to her own neck, "what about her head? We don't have another of these, won't the creatures… I thought the hostages had to stay here on the top floor for a reason."

The Doctor reached out and unceremoniously peeled the tiny device from her neck, then planted it on Reese. "To get right to the point, Donna," he said to their gapes of surprise, "you don't need that thing. Your brain has a fully-developed telepathic centre, thanks to the metacrisis."

"Doctor, once again I have no clue what you're on about. Are you saying I'm telepathic?"

"That's not a real thing, Mum," said Reese impatiently, picking at the device's edge with a fingernail. "Ow, this plaster _stings_."

"I'd leave that on if I were you," the Doctor told her sternly. "As this library is, in fact, crammed full of very real telepaths. And most of them won't hesitate to rummage around in your brain, since they aren't nearly as polite as your mum and I."

Eyes round, Reese used a finger to readhere the device and nodded.

The Doctor looked at Donna. "She needs that disruptor because she's mind-blind, same as most humans. Psi-null. But you, Donna, you're different. Your brain can recognise when some thick, ill-intentioned aliens are telling it a silly story. Ignore them and they can't bother you."

"But...I've never done that. What if I can't?"

"You've never used that part of yourself because you've never needed to, like…

like a person who has eyes, but lives on a lightless planet. It's there for you now that you need it, I promise. And if something does go wrong, I'll help you. Okay?"

Donna took a breath. "Okay."

"Brilliant." Without another word, the Doctor turned and fled the room, his strides ungainly yet impressively quick. By the time Donna and Reese followed him into the stairwell, he was already gone from sight.

"What the heck was that all about?" Reese asked, voice echoing over the clatter of their feet on the stairs. "Telepathy, really?" She grabbed Donna's wrist, pausing them both. "That's crazy, Mum. Why do I feel you're, like, trying to punish me or something? Maybe by getting that man to help you have a good laugh at my expense?"

Donna frowned, stung. "That's not fair, I wouldn't do that. Especially not now, during such a serious situation."

"Yeah, it's serious, and you're not even scared. That's not you."

"Are you joking?" Donna's grip tightened on the bannister. "I'm flipping terrified."

_And that's a good thing, _she thought but didn't add- the Doctor's words to her, the very first time she'd owned up to her fears. _I'm scared all the time, in fact,_ he'd said. _Scared means you're careful, smart, safe. Scared doesn't mean you aren't courageous. You've got courage in spades, Donna Noble. _

Reese brushed a wayward curl from her face, her dark eyes skeptical. "Yeah, well, you sure aren't acting like it. Like, if those people or creatures or whatever can't actually stop us leaving anymore, then why are we still here? It's like you _want_ to be involved. The mum I know, she wouldn't stay here a second longer than she had to, not for a million pounds."

"That's true," admitted Donna, because it was. The mum Reese knew wasn't scared but brave, she was just plain scared.

At the same time though, it _wasn't_ true. Or rather it only used to be true, like long-abandoned childhood traits. Now she was grown, and courage cloaked her, her achievements dazzled like a jeweled crown. At this moment, Donna could scarcely remember how it felt to be her old self, much less connect with her.

And -oh, god- she absolutely could not go back to _being_ her.

Four hours, the Doctor had said. To Reese, this Donna, the true Donna, would be nothing more than a blip. A fleeting glimpse of the mum she should have had.

Before she could become awash in the grief of impending loss, a girlish voice drew Donna back. "So, are we leaving?"

Hazel eyes met brown, a heavy moment passed.

And then, with deliberateness, Donna shook her head.

A disbelieving gape, a flip of dark hair. As she watched Reese stomp off, Donna treated herself to a stern mental lecture. _It's alright if she doesn't get it, she's got to get used to this change, because you're done giving up. You're not gonna just roll over and DIE again, no matter what that stupid Martian says._

Reese disappeared round the turn in the staircase.

"I'm not the mum you know," Donna told her softly.


	4. Chapter 4

Nostalgic warmth crept over Donna as she followed Reese into the library's colourful kaleidoscope of a children's wing. Child-size tables and half-done puzzles, artfully displayed picture books and the waxy scent of crayons, things had hardly changed at all since their last visit here together, years ago.

Well, it was unchanged but for one glaring anomaly, situated smack-dab in the center of the room: an enormous tree-like antennae, branching up at a precarious tilt from one tiny table. At its base was a mess of wire, looping out of the back of a chunk of cobbled-up tech that, at its core, strongly resembled one of her granddad's stereo receivers from the '80's. Gaze traveling upward, Donna found the antennae's topmost tip bent against the ceiling, and was secured there with - she squinted, confirming- yes, blue painter's tape.

Directly in front of this monstrosity sat Rose Tyler, headset hung around her neck, chair severely undersized. She was deep in conversation with the Doctor, who was on his feet, his lanky frame towering over her.

"...c'mon, Doctor," Rose was saying, head tilted way back in order to meet his eye. "Don't talk down to me."

The Doctor groaned at the pun and Rose smirked. "All m'saying is you might want to straighten out your priorities a tiny bit," she went on, waving an unopened bottle of water around. "I tell you negotiations are heading straight down the toilet, and you want to focus on how much water I've been been drinking today?"

"No," retorted the Doctor, snatching the bottle from her hand and twisting off the cap. "I want to focus on how much water you haven't been drinking today, because I can tell you're suffering a dehydration headache right now. Nursing mothers need up to a full extra litre of fluids daily; you know that, Rose."

He offered her the open bottle but Rose refused to look at it, just held his gaze and scowled, a silent battle of wills taking place. Then, without breaking eye contact, Rose grabbed the drink, downing half its contents in one go. "Happy?" she grumbled, swiping the back of her hand across her mouth.

"Quite." The Doctor's tone was amused, his expression could only be described as adoring. "Since you're always my priority. _Obviously_."

Extending a hand, he helped her to her feet with one strong tug that had Rose stumbling into his chest. "You think you're so smooth," she said, failing to keep from smiling at him.

"I don't think it, I know it," he replied in a low, teasing voice, his eyes half-lidded as they gazed into hers.

"Oi, hello, other people in the room," announced Donna loudly, and was supremely pleased when they both jumped a little. "What's this I just overheard about negotiations going down the toilet?"

Cheeks tinged with a hint of pink, Rose took another swig of water before replying. "Oh, that. It's no worse than I expected," she told Donna. "It's hard to win at that sort of thing when you really don't have much leverage. Sure, we can hold the queen's worm-people here in this library until they agree to leave empty-handed-"

"Empty-_headed_," corrected the Doctor with a grin.

"However," Rose continued, elbowing him lightly, "they're holding the humans hostage as well, plus, the queen also knows we're reluctant to destroy her ship."

The Doctor nodded. "Doubly reluctant since she's hijacked the TARDIS, which is unfortunate." His eyes followed Rose as she walked forward to set her water on the librarian's desk. "We've got to figure something else out. Think outside the box."

So much of that deserved questioning, Donna wasn't quite sure where to start. "Their queen _knows_ we won't blow her ship up? What'd you do, say so?"

"Of course not," Rose said and leaned back, using her hands to prop herself against the edge of the desk. "But it's nearly impossible to fool telepaths. You're in each other's head, after all. The one good thing about it in this case, is that the queen also knows we aren't about to make things easy for her."

"Which may make her fight even harder," the Doctor added as he, apparently finding the vast two-meter space between him and his wife unendurable, went to sit on the desktop alongside her and crooked his arm around her shoulders. Like a flower to the sun Rose turned into him, her cheek to his chest, and smiled as he placed a soft kiss on her forehead. Happy contentment radiated from them both, as if they'd just been discussing a much-anticipated holiday, rather than impending calamity.

And his eyes- there was something about this Doctor's eyes that Donna did not recognise, a shift far more profound than their altered shape and colour. Like a dark and haunted landscape turned vibrant, like a space once forlorn and empty now lit up from within. Regeneration may have renewed his body, but it was Rose, Donna knew, who had so transformed his spirit.

There was a sort of immenseness in the pair's connection, a beautiful ease that made Donna's heart ache. Things had never been like that with her and Shaun, not even at the best of times. It was lovely to see it was possible.

Maybe someday.

"Aren't you two adorable," commented Donna with deliberate sarcasm, to ensure the Doctor wouldn't guess at the actual turn of her thoughts. "I hope all that cuddling helps you _think_."

Chin still in Rose's hair, the Doctor acquired a devilishly suggestive grin. "Oh, you don't know the half."

"Doctor," Rose admonished with a laugh, giving his knee a light smack, while Donna thumbed vigorously toward Reese, who stood behind her, silently taking things in.

"My _child_, right here. So watch it, Spaceman."

"Oh, hello," said Rose, focusing in on Reese as if she'd just noticed the teen's presence. Quickly extricating herself from her husband, she hurried forward with one hand outstretched. "I'm sorry, Reese, with all this madness going on I totally forgot to introduce myself. I'm Rose, the Doctor's wife."

"Do you really know my mum?" Reese asked suddenly, as they shook hands. "I mean, have you actually met her before today?"

The question made Rose blink. "Yes I do, but the Doctor knows her better. He considers her one of his best friends."

Reese pulled the cuff of one sleeve over her hand. "But...so why have I never met him, or seen pictures? Or _heard_ of him, even."

Unsure, Rose looked to Donna for help. "It's complicated, Reese," she rushed out, praying her hot face wasn't too red. "There isn't time to explain it all now."

"Right, I forgot, cos it's such a 'long story'." Although Reese muttered this under her breath, the displeased twist of the Doctor's mouth reminded Donna of his keen alien ears.

"So, leverage," Donna said to him, eager to change the subject. "How do you think we can get some? Obviously, freeing the hostages would be the simplest way, there's got to be something..." She pursed her lips thoughtfully. "Doctor, could you possibly make more of those little devices like Reese is wearing, those brain protectors? The bookworms can't prevent people leaving here if they can't scare them, right?"

"You make a good point," replied the Doctor, as that probing gaze of his shifted between her and Reese, gauging the distance between them, their defensive stances. Donna uncrossed her arms. "But, unfortunately, the materials I'd need are on the TARDIS. And if I had the TARDIS, we wouldn't need telepathic disruptors to free people, we could just gather them onboard and relocate to safety."

Donna absorbed that, forehead creasing. "So how'd the aliens get the TARDIS in the first place?"

All at once the Doctor became very interested in a stack of brightly illustrated bookmarks. "Basic transmat," he answered, flicking through them with a finger, and made a face of disgust as he unearthed one featuring a widely grinning blue cartoon shark.

The line between Donna's brows deepened. "What, like the Sontarans did? Don't you think you should do something to prevent that sort of thing happening?"

"Yes," he retorted with a scowl, abandoning the bookmarks and hopping down from the desk. "I normally prevent it by not bringing her into the middle of battle. It couldn't be helped, this time."

Donna stared him down. "Does the sonic screwdriver do wood yet?"

"Oh, shut up."

Giggling, Rose patted his arm. "Love, you never mentioned how those poor people upstairs are getting on."

The Doctor brightened. "I ordered pizza for them," he informed her proudly, as if it had been his own idea. "And for us. Should be here in a few minutes."

"Oh, pizza sounds amazing, I'm starving."

For a moment the Doctor eyed her intently, as if trying to determine whether his wife might be in immediate danger of fainting away from hunger. "I had figured this would all be sorted by now," he groused. "Who'd've thought we'd be stuck here till well past tea-time, for a thing that barely counts as a real invasion? I say, if our baby's up half the night because the sodding Queen of the Bookworms somehow prevents us getting her to bed on time, that misandrous alien and I will have _words_."

"Is he joking?" Reese whispered to Donna.

"We'll sort it, Doctor," Rose said with certainty. "We're only one clever idea away. And in the meantime, I think it's good for the queen to stew a little. I reckon she's getting nervous."

"Oh, yes, good negotiation tactic. I like it." The Doctor's expression scrunched into what Donna could still recognise as his thinking face. "You know, it's too bad I left that old vortex manipulator of Jack's on the TARDIS instead of storing it in UNIT's archives. I could use it to pop onto the TARDIS and then bring her back here."

"Hold on," said Donna to Rose, eagerly gesturing toward her coat pocket. "Does he mean that big watch thing with the brown leather-"

Rose silenced Donna with a slight but meaningful head-shake. "Yes, he does, but the Doctor is forgetting that the TARDIS is what's blocking the bookworms' teleport module." She turned back to him, arms folding as if they were having an argument. "Remove the TARDIS from this reality, and you know the queen will teleport all her workers back onto their spaceship in less than a millisecond."

"Right, okay." The Doctor eyed Rose's body-language. "So it's a bad idea. But, did you not hear me start it off with 'too bad the vortex manipulator is on the TARDIS?"

The little glare Rose shot him made Donna snicker. "You know what's really too bad?" she bit out. "The way you left that vortex manipulator entirely unsecured in the top drawer of your bedside table, where our curious little six-year-old could easily find it."

Predictably, the Doctor went silent and still, looking like a cornered animal. Only his eyes moved, darting from Rose to the floor, door, bookshelves, ceiling, Donna, then Reese, like he sought any available diversion or route of escape.

"Doctor," Rose warned, and to Donna's eternal surprise, he visibly caught himself. Didn't distract, didn't evade, but squarely met his wife's eyes again.

"I'm sorry, Rose. I got interrupted, I think, forgot to store it away properly. There was a…catastrophe."

A sigh from Rose. "Define catastrophe."

"It was when Suzy got into our stash of hidden biscuits right before bedtime," he informed her, real horror in his eyes. "Do you remember? Blimey, what a sugar-high, it was like there were three of her."

"Alright," conceded Rose, grimacing a little. "I remember, I get it. Still, I wish you would stop working on that stuff in our bedroom. You have a lab for a reason."

"Bedroom's so comfy, though," the Doctor replied with a grin.

A disbelieving sound escaped Reese. "Wait a minute," she said, head tilted, eyes narrow, "aren't you two supposed to be special agents? Why do you keep talking like _parents_?"

"Um, cos we are?" Rose seemed sincerely baffled, but the Doctor's jaw was tight again and Donna knew Reese's stubborn skepticism was bothering him. Might as well address it directly.

"Reese thinks we might be conspiring," Donna explained as she dropped to sit atop a green kid-table, all at once exhausted straight to her bones. "She thinks I convinced you to pretend to know me and say we used to work together on this crazy sort of stuff, so she'd respect me more."

Shuffling back a step in surprise, Reese fingered the little owl charm on her necklace. "I've never heard of them," she repeated, voice rising a little in pitch. "I ask you about it and you keep evading. So what else am I supposed to think?"

The Doctor came alive, as if a spotlight had just lit up his stage. "Did your mum say 'long story'?" he asked, round-shouldered as he faced her, clasping his hands with deliberateness. "I'll keep it short. Basically, I'm a twelve-hundred-year-old alien who travels through time and space in a magnificent ship, saving people and planets and universes from every sort of dire calamity, and, years ago, your brilliant, clever mother Donna Noble was my partner in that. She infiltrated spaceships and freed enslaved races and shouted down evil masterminds, and then, to top all, she basically snuffed the fuse of a _Reality_ _Bomb_ —yes, that's exactly awful as it sounds, a bomb meant to obliterate functional reality— so if it weren't for her, none of us-"

"Doctor," Donna managed to insert, though he hadn't yet paused for breath. "It's fine. The building's full of aliens, we don't need to focus on whether or not she understands-"

"I don't care if this building is full of Daleks," he retorted, so forceful and warm that for an instant she saw freckles and spiky brown hair. "This needs addressing, Donna. This is your life. Your daughter does need to understand, to appreciate who you truly are, before…"

"Before what? Before I have to forget everything again, is that what you meant to say? Before I have to go back to being nothing?"

The Doctor flinched. "You're _not_ nothing, Donna. Timelines converged upon you for a reason. You're special."

She got up, gaze resolutely fixing on the narrow window alongside the door. "Yeah, maybe. But that person... she _died_, Doctor. Died before Reese was even born. So what if I'm back for the moment, if I've just got to lose all my memories again, well, it's sort of useless, yeah? No one can force her to see that side of me. She needs time, time to get to know-"

"Stop it," Reese demanded, hands pressed to the sides of her head. "There you go again, discussing mad, major things right in front of me without bothering to explain. Blimey, first it's all aliens and spaceships and telepathy, and now you're going to lose your memory? Like, what does that even mean?"

"I'm sorry, sweetheart, I…" Pained, Donna sighed heavily. "Believe me, I know exactly how frustrating that can be. It's just, all of this _is_ major and mad, and so, so complicated."

She took a shaky breath. "Everything the Doctor said about me, it's true, all of it. But I didn't give him a chance to say how it ended. There was an accident. My brain...it got overloaded with a lot of stuff it couldn't handle, it was burning up, and-" Unwanted tears sprung to her eyes and Donna tried to force them back, but it was futile. Watching her dab at them, Reese began to look alarmed.

"And so I had to suppress her memories of anything to do with me and our travels," the Doctor filled in for her, voice grave and sad. "I hated doing it. But it was the only way I could think of to save your mum's life."

Worry had replaced doubt in the pinch of Reese's brows. "So why can Mum remember it all now?"

"Another accident," said Rose, her eyes apologetic. "When she recognised me outside the library, her brain was triggered to call it all up again."

"But…" Reese chewed the inside of her lip and looked at Donna. "You're okay, right?"

"There's a drug in my system," Donna admitted reluctantly. "Blocking most of the stuff from overloading my head."

Reese began to rub her palms on her jeans. "So the drug'll wear off, and then what? You'll have to forget everything again? Like, will you not even remember what's happened today?"

The Doctor went all fidgety and frowny, like this conversation was reawakening his worries. But she couldn't bear to hear him affirm Reese's concerns, or worse, task her with Donna's future protection. It was hard enough to cling to her hopes without him dashing them all to pieces.

Hastily, Donna redirected things. "That's why you never heard of him," she told Reese. "Because I forgot him. And I forgot who I was."

"I'm sorry, Donna," said the Doctor, his projected anxiety quieting into sadness. "All this time, I'd hoped you'd only forgotten what you _did_."

"Yeah, well." She gave him a small smile. "Maybe I need someone to help bring out the best in me. Just like you do, Spaceman."

He did not smile back. "If that's true, why isn't Shaun Temple that someone? The man's lived with you for nearly two decades."

"That's long over, Doctor," Donna replied with a glance at the highly attentive Reese, carefully keeping all bitterness from her voice. "Besides, even if he couldn't see me, he was far from my worst husband. Never tried to feed me to a giant spider, for one thing."

That got the Doctor to crack a smile. "Was he at least better than that rubbish prince...what's his name again? I only know it was ridiculous."

"Ha, it was Rudolph. Suited him."

"Hold on...you once married a prince?" blurted Reese, touching her fingers to her chest and sounding, for the first time, well and truly shocked.

A cheeky, unbidden grin stretched Donna's face. "Nah, she replied, allowing her eyes to twinkle at her daughter. "I jilted him."

Reese's mouth went slack enough to catch flies. "You'd never."

"Well, of course she would," the Doctor cut in with an impatient wave of his hand, probably annoyed that the teen was more awed by Donna's romantic conquest than by the exploits he'd tried to dazzle her with. "When Donna Noble believes in something she never backs down."

Chin dipping, he gazed down at them with wise old eyes. "And she was like that long before she ever met me. I'd say it's one reason I invited her along in the TARDIS, but, truth is, your mother and her hat-box invited themselves. Anyway, I reckon kids in school never dared bully you, have they?"

This question seemed to catch Reese off-guard. "No," she replied, after a thoughtful pause. "Although…when I was young, maybe eight or so, there was some stuff happening on my school bus, bigger kids harassing the smaller ones, typical, but it could get nasty at times. Anyway, one morning the worst boy dumped some girl's lunch on the pavement while my mum was still at the bus-stop. Huge mistake. Mum yelled a lot and made him trade lunches with the girl, made the bus driver call his mum and things."

"But the best part," Reese began to chuckle a little, "was how Mum decided that the bus needed a monitor and she was it. Rode the bus to school and back with us every day, for weeks. My dad said she was mad, doing all that without getting paid. But Mum said being bullied could mess up a kid for life, and she wasn't gonna just sit around and let it happen."

Smiling loftily, the Doctor adjusted his bow-tie. "Just look at her. Finally opening her eyes."

"It's not that I don't want to believe in my mum." Reese looked down and toed the carpet, those thick lashes of hers Donna had always been so proud of fanning against her cheeks. "But all of this…'s a bit much to take in, okay? Maybe it's hard to get my hopes up."

"Oh, sweetheart," breathed Donna.

"Well, if I've learned anything in my very long life," declared the Doctor after a lengthy pause, his eyes finding Rose's, "it's that hope is a thing to be welcomed."

Butterflies fluttered inside Donna. "You mean that? You're going to try to fix me?"

"Well, of course I'm going to try," he huffed as he paced away. "Permanent solutions to problems are almost always better than temporary ones. Plus, I'd sort of like to be able to spend a bit of time with you now and again, for some reason. Not sure why. Must not get enough people _shouting_ at me in my day-to-day life."

"I could stop holding back," remarked Rose, nibbling at a pinky nail.

"Is this what Gramps meant?" Reese asked, as if suddenly struck. "I remember him saying it all the time, when I was little, that my mum was a hero; I was lucky to have the most important mummy in the world. Did he know about all this?"

"Ha, he was _there_," said the Doctor, resting his weight against a bookcase. "Good old Wilf; he helped save the world once, too." Turning warm eyes on Reese, he looked her up and down. "Perhaps we'll find it runs in the family."

She gave him a shy smile.

A creak, the door opening. "Excuse me, sorry," called a male voice, and they all turned to look. Propping the door with his black-clad body was one of the UNIT soldiers, the fit, attractive blond one. He had a pizza box in his hands and dimples, Donna was pleased to note, decorating each side of his nervous smile. "The pizza's arrived, just wondering if any of you lot want some."

"Oh, yes please, thanks!" replied Rose with her typical warm enthusiasm, hurrying over to take the box from his hands. "Would you like to join us?"

Pretty blue eyes scanned Rose appraisingly, and the dimples deepened. "Um, I'd like to, but..." Donna saw the young man shoot a harried glance at the Doctor. "I should probably return to my post- oh, rats, I've forgotten to bring some paper plates and napkins along. Hold on, I'll run back upstairs and fetch them-"

"No, no," Rose stopped him. "There's loads of kitchen roll by the sink over there, we can use that, we don't need anything fancier. I'm Rose, by the way. What's your name?"

"Daniel. Daniel Henderson."

"Well, this smells amazing, Daniel Henderson. Thanks again for fetching it for us."

"Oi," complained the Doctor, on his way to the sink. "It's not like ordering the pizza was his idea, Rose. He's just doing what I told him to do."

Donna folded her arms. "No, he's doing what I told _you_ to do."

"It's a plain cheese one, hope that's alright," Daniel was saying to Rose in an undertone. "The Doctor told me his wife only likes that kind."

"Oh, he did, did he?" she replied with a laugh, shaking her head at the Doctor. From across the room, the Doctor acquired a look of angelic innocence, but then held smirking eye contact with his wife as he tore off squares of kitchen roll.

Daniel didn't seem to notice their flirtatious exchange, though his eyes never left Rose for a second. "So, Rose, I can't help noticing that your accent's quite similar to mine," he said, following her as she went to set the pizza on the desk. "Do you mind if I ask you where you grew up?"

Rose skillfully evaded the young man with a vague, half-answer. It didn't put him off at all, he pressed her with yet another question, and oh, thought Donna, this was too good. Grinning to herself, Donna looked for the Doctor's reaction, but he was too busy rifling through a cabinet to notice what was happening.

"In Peckham, you say?" Daniel was still Rose's shadow as she went to fetch a few bottles of water. "I wonder if it was the estate that my bus went by all the time…we must've gone to different schools, though. I don't remember ever seeing you."

"Oh, thanks, Reese," was all Rose said to that, as the teen lugged over a couple of metal folding chairs she'd found that were actually adult-sized. The Doctor returned next, dumping his armful of paper towels and a pilfered bag of lollies onto the desk's top.

"Do you still live in Peckham, then?" persisted the pretty soldier, his voice raising slightly over Donna and the Doctor's quick skirmish for the cushy desk chair. "You know, when you aren't space traveling? Cos, well-"

"No, nope," inserted Donna loudly as she adjusted the chair's lumbar support, pity for the poor, oblivious bloke overriding her fun in watching how things might play out. "Don't. You really don't want to finish that sentence, Soldier-boy. _I'm_ single though, in case you were wondering."

Pizza slice halfway to his mouth, the Doctor stared at Donna. "Did I miss something?"

"Yeah, you did, probably for the best though."

Outside the windows, the grey, overcast sky had more colour than the Lieutenant's face did at this moment. "I...I'm so sorry," he stammered out, horror-stricken eyes darting between Rose and the Doctor. "I'm so sorry, I didn't know. She," he gestured to Donna, "she was upstairs with him earlier, it was stupid of me to assume she was his wife-"

"Hey, it's alright." Rose tried to console him with a smile. "I'm flattered. Really."

A loud groan from the Doctor, as he finally caught on. "Oh, c'mon. Here we go again- can someone please tell me why it's only women who are able to see the enormous wedding ring she's wearing?"

The young soldier held his hands up, stumbling a bit as he backed away. "Sir, I'm so sorry-"

"Yes, yes. Get out of here, Daniel. Go back upstairs and eat some pizza."

Poor Daniel gratefully fled the room, only to reappear in the doorway less than five minutes later. "Sir?" he called out, flinching at the sound of his own voice.

The Doctor met him with an incredulous look, eyebrows rising high on his forehead.

"Um, ah, Kate Stewart, she...she just radioed in a message for you. Apparently UNIT has placed a formal demand on the queen; she is to instruct her people to abandon whatever they've collected and flee this galaxy." He cleared his throat. "One hour."

"One hour till what?" The Doctor's eyes narrowed dangerously.

"Well. Until they destroy her ship, sir."

Fury flared the Doctor's nostrils and the lieutenant vanished like mist in the sun.

"Oh, calm down," said Donna, as the Doctor began to rise from his chair. "You work best when something's lit a fire under you. I was about to start feigning head pain."

"Not funny." He glared. "Okay then, one good idea. Everybody start talking."

Reese frowned, and took her red lolly out of her mouth. "Can't we just let them destroy her ship?"

"They're people, too," Donna told her sternly, over the Doctor's offended "no!". "We can't just let them be killed. It's wrong."

"Sorry," replied Reese- instantly, genuinely contrite. It was quite a nice change, Donna had to admit.

"I can get back on the telepathic radio." Rose gestured to that ridiculous tilted antennae with a pizza crust. "Maybe the queen will reconsider, once she realises I'm genuinely worried for her."

"Yes, excellent, you're in charge of that, Lewis," said the Doctor, palms pressing flat together. "And what else have we got?"

Donna sipped her water, thinking. "What will happen to the Bookworms downstairs, if their ship is lost and they're stuck here?"

"They'll die, eventually. Starve."

"That's awful. Do they know that?"

"Doubtful. But it's not like they get a say."

"They might," argued Donna, recapping her water bottle. "If we can help them see it's their lives on the line too, it might have an effect. They might choose to leave without stealing anything."

"We'd be asking them to rebel against their queen." The Doctor looked doubtful. "I don't know… they're not much used to thinking for themselves, Donna. They just sort of...go along with things."

"Well, can't we at least try?" persisted Donna. "Like...well, isn't it sort of like that one film that came out awhile back, _Pleasantville_? You know, where everything's black and white at the start, literally, because the people don't think for themselves, but it turns out it's not because they can't, they just haven't tried, and then when they start to do-"

"All the self-important people get angry," finished the Doctor with a grin of delight.

"No- well, yes, but you know that's not what I meant-"

"Of course my mum's idea to save us comes from a Reese Witherspoon flick," Reese was saying to him, but she was smiling too.

Bounding to his feet like a released coiled spring, the Doctor fetched Rose her headset. "Be back shortly, dear," he said, planting a quick kiss on her lips before attempting to herd Donna toward the stairwell door. "Okay, hurry up, you can play Mary Sue- that's the character in the film that starts all the trouble, right?"

"Wait, what- we're going to try my idea?"

"Of course we're going to try it," he replied distractedly, glancing back over his shoulder. "Oi, come along, Temple, your mum's about to incite a mutiny! You don't want to miss that!"

"What?" gasped Donna. "Me? How can I talk to them, they're mouthless aliens!"

"_You _have a mouth." The Doctor tossed her an odd look as they started down the stairs, side by side. "But for once in your life, you won't need it. Telepathic, remember? Just think at them. Easy peasy."

"Why can't you do it?"

"They won't listen to me, I'm male, remember? Now, don't worry, you've got this. You've always been quite persuasive."

Behind them, Reese began to giggle. "Yeah, but Mum equates persuasiveness with lung capacity and decibels."

And then a chummy laugh was shared, between Donna's one and only child and that alien prat.

"Oi," she groused, glaring back at Reese. "Whose side are you on?"


	5. Chapter 5

**Finally, the conclusion. This was ridiculously fun to write. Hope you enjoy it, dear readers!**

* * *

Since 'help Donna knock her daughter's socks off' sat strongly second in importance on the Doctor's priority list today, perhaps he should have held off a bit before psychically enabling Reese to hear her mum in action.

_**HI**_, projected Donna, not unlike a toddler trying out a new word.

The Doctor tried not to cringe. "Yes, yes, bravo, lovely start. But, maybe try thinking exactly what you'd say, if you could."

"Well, why can't I just say it then, Doctor, they've got little earholes, don't they?"

"Oh my god, Mum, I heard you," marveled Reese, through the hand that had flown up to cover her mouth. She sounded like her socks had been quite knocked. "I heard you in my _mind_."

Pleased, the Doctor beamed at the girl. Maybe this was going better than he thought. "Told you, your mum's special. Not many humans can do that."

"I've hardly done anything yet." Donna blushed at the praise.

He turned his smile on her. "Oh, but you will."

With a nod and a breath, Donna faced the creatures again, her mouth and eyes tightening with determination. _Um, hello. HELLO. Can any of you lot hear me? I'm Donna, and… well, I need you to listen. I have an important message to deliver, something you'll really want to hear..._

Spindly pink bodies bustled about, stretching toward high shelves and low, fixating on books, discarding them haphazardly. It had grown rather dim in the library but the Blianwilgathworty didn't seem to mind, their black, glass-like eyes easily utilizing the wan light. Eyes that spared not a single glance for Donna. Discouraged, she looked at the Doctor again. "It's like they don't even know I'm here."

"They know you're here," he assured, and gave her hand a squeeze. "You've just got to keep trying to get their attention."

Donna glanced over her shoulder, obviously checking to make sure her daughter was handling things okay. The Doctor had to give Reese credit- although visibly nervous, the teen hadn't done anything stupid yet, like scream or run away. Most humans did not handle a first up-close alien encounter this well.

(Well, perhaps he'd been her first- but that didn't count, since he was highly attractive, whilst these Bookworms were decidedly _not_.)

Reese had, however, gradually eased in to be quite close to her mother, as if she felt safer within her orbit. With a hidden smile, the Doctor watched Donna notice this, her initial surprise quickly giving way to straight shoulders, a confident little hair-toss as she returned to her task.

_Okay, so maybe you're ignoring me, and I get it, that's your choice. I'm not your queen, I'm not even important, but… but you should listen anyway, cos I've got a warning. You're all in danger. Big danger. Huge._

As Donna carried on, her message quickly shifted from talk of missiles and armies to the underlying point of things, autonomy and choice and life. Fists clenched, heart fully involved, her pleas were at once all fervour and confidence, and it all but stole the breath from the Doctor's lungs. Oh, her presence was powerful now, the fire of her; the kindred cadence of her soul. The last was the metacrisis' doing, but perhaps also fate's- after all, hadn't Donna been like a sister to him long before she nicked a chunk of his genetics?

_...so much easier for you if you'd just trundle off to, say, Laois? Died out nearly three-hundred years ago, nobody around anymore to intrude...or, there's also Delta Stavoren IV. That one's in the Andromeda galaxy, practically round the corner from here, with loads of abandoned libraries, this one's like a snack in comparison…"_

It was the Doctor's turn to be astonished. "How did I not think of suggesting alternative planets for them to scavenge?" he muttered to himself, scratching the back of his neck. "Not that they would've listened to me, but still-"

"Because you're lacking that little bit of human," Donna paused to inform him, her eyes gleaming and wise, her mind as vast as space. "I can think of things that you wouldn't, not in a million years."

Awe became terror in an instant. "Stop!" gasped the Doctor, but it was too late. As Donna flung her hands to her head and cried out in pain, his own mind filled with a low, buzzing hiss.

As one, the Blianwilgathworty stilled. Turned. Stared.

_Time Lord._

Still wincing, Donna reached for Reese, fingers curling around the girl's slender wrist. "Looks like they've noticed you're important," she whispered to him.

"They're not talking about me."

From amongst the rows of bookshelves, eyes like polished onyx fixed on Donna, her pinched, wary expression mirrored in their shine. Slowly, carefully, the Doctor shifted, using his body to try to block her and Reese from the creatures' view.

The Blianwilgathworty lifted their delicate arms and pointed. Took a single, choreographed step forward. Long, outstretched fingers began to spark, jolts of white and gold crackling like lightning along the tips.

"Oh, cool trick," exhaled the Doctor.

Donna clutched at his arm. "Does that mean they can't hurt us with that?"

"Oh, they can definitely hurt us with that," he said, grabbing her and Reese by the hands as he made an abrupt 180. "_Run!"_

As they sprinted into the lobby, the Doctor pushed them ahead of him. "Quick, into that little office, now! _Now!"_

The scrabble of bare feet on the lobby tile could be heard as the Doctor slammed the office door and locked it, just as the first of the creatures flung itself against it, hard. _Rose! Donna's neuroinhibitor is failing and, long story short, now these aliens want to eat her brain. _

_Wait, what?_

"Great," Donna said from behind him, no doubt discovering how tiny the room's window was. "We're trapped."

"We're _safe_," he said, to her and to Rose. _We're in the little office. Please, get yourself to safety too, dear, hurry._

_You got it, Sarge. Standing by if you need me._ His wonderful wife asked no further questions, sensing his desperate need to think.

"We don't even have phones," moaned Donna, taking in the small space, filled up by a desk and file cabinets and not much else. "How will anyone know we need help?"

"Rose knows, I just told her."

Donna stared at him like he was daft. Rolling his eyes, the Doctor touched his temple.

Comprehension filled her eyes. "Oh, right, the telepathy, blimey but that's handy. Like having a mobile phone in your head head head head head head-"

Hearts stilling, then racing, the Doctor gasped and reached for her face. "Donna!"

She recoiled from his touch, stumbling back against the desk. "Keep your space fingers away from me!"

"What's wrong with my mum?" cried Reese, one hand clutching the collar of her jumper.

"Her psychic barriers are slipping," the Doctor said urgently. "Donna, you've got to let me tighten them. Just enough to hold back the Time Lord stuff, promise."

A pause, and then as Donna gave him a cautious, consenting nod, he hurried to press his shaky fingers to her temples. Eyes closing, Doctor worked as quickly as he could, trying hard not to project his worry. Blast, he needed his TARDIS badly, where he could obtain a nice second dose of neuroinhibitor. Or a stasis chamber, if need be. These reinforcements wouldn't cut it for long, this little dam he was building of scrap wood and cardboard.

"Will they leave us alone now?" Donna asked, as he dropped his hands and opened his eyes. As if to answer her question, the doorknob rattled wildly, and long, bony, electrified fingers began to claw under the door's bottom like in a scary movie. A shriek escaped Reese at the awful sight, and she pressed up hard against a file cabinet, looking every bit the young and scared child she was.

Donna hastened over to her, and Reese did not resist the comforting hug she offered. "Mum, those aliens- don't they want knowledge? Why are they chasing _you_ now?"

"Easy," said the Doctor, over the _whirr_ of his screwdriver as he attempted to deadlock the door. "It's because they caught a whiff of what your mum's got crammed into her brain- the universe's largest, most impressive information databank."

"_Is_ it though?" queried Donna mock-innocently, and smirked when he scowled at her. "Didn't Rose tell their queen about those other feeding spots yet, those dead civilizations?"

Eyes on the wriggling fingers, the Doctor stretched an inquisitive boot-toe toward them, then yelped and jumped away when his foot's touch elicited a shower of sparks. "Ehm." He cleared his throat, pretending nothing had just happened. "Rose doesn't need to, Donna. The workers know, that means their queen does too. Problem is, they've gotten a taste of the Time Lord knowledge in your head and now everything else is going to pale in comparison. We could offer them all of Earth and they wouldn't take it."

Reese fidgeted anxiously with a tube of lip balm, capping and uncapping it. "So, this time knowledge? That's what's been hurting you, Mum?"

"Yeah, suppose you could call it that."

"But… that's sort of perfect, isn't it?" Eyes big with realisation, Reese leaned into Donna. "Can't you just let them have it? They're hungry, and you need that stuff out of your head anyway, it's not like you've got any use for it-"

"Yes, but _I _do." The Doctor met Donna's brightening look with a wry one. "Once they consume it, it's gone, remember?"

A massive, groaning creak vibrated from the old door, like an immense force was being exerted against it. Eyeing it worriedly, the Doctor frowned and steepled his hands, dropping his mouth to his fingertips. They had minutes, maybe, till it came caving in. Think, _think_. There had to be something he could do, before UNIT shoved their noses into the situation, their stupid guns a'blazing-

Donna's voice rang out. "Oh, don't even think about it."

Blinking, the Doctor glanced her way. "Don't think about what?"

"Using those aliens to fix my head. You're not gonna martyr yourself for me, you prawn."

"Donna, don't be daft." The Doctor smiled at her. "I've got a wife and kids now, they need me, my martyr days are over. Besides, I couldn't make that choice anyway, I'd be dooming all of Gallifrey-"

With a great splintering sound, the six-panel door began to sport a long, jagged crack down one seam, its hinges straining. "Quick!" yelled the Doctor. "We've got to blockade this- help push the desk over!"

The three of them sprung into action, the ancient, heavy desk groaning in protest as they forced it across the floor. "I thought your planet was gone!" Donna exclaimed.

"Yeah, might've been wrong about that, long story, not the time!" The desk crashed hard against the straining door. Hands wringing, the Doctor surveyed things. "That won't hold for long."

"Here, this might help reinforce it," panted Reese, heaving a box full of books onto the desk.

"Oh, good idea." Donna watched the door, clattering and jerking in its frame. "Their queen's greed is going to get all of them killed," she mused, sounding more sorrowful than scared. "UNIT must know what's happening by now- they're going to act any minute, aren't they?"

"Yes," the Doctor replied dully. All his fault, too, for neglecting to offer the aliens food alternatives at a time when they might have taken them. The Blianwilgathworty were going to die. And Donna...she might die too, maybe not literally, but it was dying all the same. She had too much of him in her brain, and his shoddy psychic patch-up could give way any minute-

"Hey." Donna jabbed his ribs with her elbow. "New face or no, I still know that look. Stop blaming yourself. You weren't even there when I downloaded your brain into my head. And I saved reality with it, thanks. So I'm not sorry. I'd rather have done things that matter and never remember it, than never have done them at all."

Reese hefted a third box, _thunk_, onto the desk. "Mum." Brown eyes liquid and soft and earnest, she reached out to touch her mother's hand. "_I'll_ remember it."

Stilling, the Doctor watched as Donna and her daughter shared a smile- a genuine, warm smile, to punctuate what was quite a profound moment, and blimey, there he went, getting all choked up again.

"That's a lovely sentiment, sweetheart," Donna said gently, "but I was only making a point... Oi, I see you getting all teary-eyed, Spaceman." She pointed a scolding finger at him. "If you're still thinking of sending me home without mending my head nice and proper this time, you've got another thing coming."

It startled a watery laugh out of him.

"Anyway, what I'd like to know is," Donna went on, voice raising over the obscene racket the door was making, "how did you end up with some of me in _your_ head? Your Suzy, she was saying how you just _love _that, but I can't imagine how it-" She trailed off, looking puzzled by his sudden, deep frown.

"My Suzy? When would you have seen her?"

Immense suspicion filled him when guilt flashed over Donna's face, and then Rose was in his head again. _You need to know that UNIT is gonna rush in with tear gas, unless you have another plan in progress. But Kate absolutely refuses to wait more than another five minutes. I'm sorry, love. I don't know what else to do._

_Me either. Feels like I can't think straight at all today._

Donna's voice crept back into his awareness. "...don't ever forget anything, do you? Those lost civilizations- Doctor, you've been there, you know so much about them. Couldn't we just, I dunno, trick the Bookworms, somehow? Let them believe they're getting the Time Lord knowledge, but you'll actually serve up stuff the universe won't miss. And don't tell me your brain can't compartmentalise like that, I know it does, I've seen it."

The Doctor managed a small smile; she was trying so hard. "That's brilliant, Donna Noble. But, well, a Time Lord brain only stores what's important. If I still have it, I need it. I might end up on a dead planet before it's dead, and it's my job to maintain the timelines." He gave a little sniff. "And my mental library doesn't have a YA section, so to speak."

He expected a smack for his swotty remark, to be roundly chastised for giving up, but Donna only stared at him, sparkling-eyed, like he was the cleverest being she'd ever met.

No... like _she_ was.

"Mine does," she stated meaningfully, grinning like he was in on the joke.

His confusion got him an eye-roll. "Little bit Time Lord, _mostly_ human. My brain works like yours, dumbo, _but_…not everything in it is valuable. Like...Gogglebox."

"Goggle-_what?_"

"You know, that stupid TV show about watching TV shows...but that's not the point, what I'm getting at is, I reckon the world would never even miss it. Yeah?"

As surprised delight began to bloom across his face, the Doctor pointed at Donna. Her grin widened. "There we go, now he's catching on."

"What?" asked Reese, bouncing a bit, excited because they were excited. "What's he catching on to?"

The Doctor was already in motion, moving a box of books off the desk. "To sum up, your sneaky little mum is about to use her alien-hybrid brain's superpowers to serve up cheap take-away to some unsuspecting Bookworms." He grabbed another box. "C'mon, help out, we've got to move this barricade."

_Rose, quick. I need you to get back on with the queen, tell her we concede, they can have what's in Donna's head if they agree to leave immediately, sans Earth knowledge. Trust me._

_Always._

By the time they shoved the makeshift barricade off to the side, the creatures had ceased trying to break into the office, and the Doctor knew his terms had been accepted. "I hope your brain sorts everything Kardashian into its giveaway box, Donna. Honestly, I think you'd be doing that family a favour."

Donna bit her lip pensively. "You're not worried about this at all? What if I accidentally give them something important, and it rips a hole in the time-space continuity or whatever?"

"Time Lord operating system up here." He gave her skull a tap with his knuckles. "You can trust it."

Reese eyed the half-broken door. "I don't want those aliens touching my mum."

"No touch," the Doctor assured her. "Okay, Donna Noble. More telepathy. You're practically an expert now, eh? But," he sobered, "I've got to lower your mental barriers, otherwise you won't have control of what you're doing. Just briefly, the hand-off to them should be quick, but it's dangerous, Donna. Dangerous for you. If anything goes wrong, I'll have to put you to sleep and let those blasted aliens go hungry. Alright with that?"

Donna stared at him, aghast. "To sleep? Like a sick dog?"

Despite his fears, the Doctor burst out laughing. "No, of course not, blimey. _Why_ would you think-"

"Oh, button it," she grumbled, and whacked his arm when he didn't stop laughing. "Oi. Just get your stupid fingers over here and unlock my brain, will ya?"

A quick touch to her temples later, Donna was squeezing her eyes shut and grimacing, like she was enduring an awful migraine. "Okay, junk drawer, where are you...blimey, there's even more in here than I thought there would be. _Hollyoaks; Jeremy Kyle, Big Brother _-I might miss that one a bit- oh, I forgot about my Jackie Collins phase." A grin. "Oh my god, look, here's all the times Nerys actually got me back! Ha, poor thing, she won't have anything left to hold over my head!"

"Poor Bookworms are going to end up with a nasty case of indigestion," chuckled the Doctor. "Now, Donna, hurry. Imagine that mental space has a door."

"Done."

"Good. Now," the Doctor shooed Reese into a corner as he took hold of the office door's brass knob, slowly twisting it. "Open the door."

At her nod he wrenched the literal door open, catching just the barest glimpse of the greedy, glittering-eyed creatures before they were snatched from space, leaving behind nothing but the heavy, metallic scent of ion residue.

A faint smile on her face, Donna sagged to her knees. The Doctor flew over to steady her, and then hastily shored up her mental barriers.

_You did it! _Rose cheered in his head. _The TARDIS is back!_

_Oh, thank heavens. Be there in a mo'._

"Are they gone?" Donna asked him, weakly. "Did I do it?"

"Yes. You saved us. You saved the whole world. Again."

"You saved us," Reese echoed, looking slightly shell-shocked as she gazed into the empty lobby. "Oh my god, Mum, you made them go."

"And you're okay, sweetheart?"

"Well," she pretended to think for a moment, "I'm pretty sure I can still quote from Legally Blonde, so that's good, right?"

Donna chuckled. "I have no clue what I did give away. I suspect I should pity the fans of daytime telly."

"Yes, well, humans will only produce more." Encouraging Donna to put an arm around his shoulders, the Doctor helped her to her feet. "Probably at twice the rate. Anyway. Back to the TARDIS."

As they slowly started off, Reese supporting Donna on one side, him on the other, thoughts of an interrupted interrogation returned to his mind. "By the way, Donna," he voiced casually, "I don't think you ever said. How is it you know my daughter Suzy, again?

Donna's face was downturned, her eyes on her own unsteady feet, but he still saw her quick twitch of lips. "Once again, I have no clue what you're on about, Spaceman. Since when do you have a daughter?"

"Oi, lying," the Doctor declared, indignant. "If you'd binned that, I couldn't even be asking about it- _Donna! _Oh, this is an awfully convenient faint, if you ask me!"

* * *

"It's a relief to see at least this hasn't changed," decided Donna, after giving the console room a good look-over. She was comfortably propped against a TARDIS jump-seat, pink-cheeked and alert after her second dose of neuroinhibitor and a nice little nap. "I was bracing myself for yet another supposed upgrade."

The Doctor, in the midst of a careful adjustment of the space-time throttle, paused and frowned at her. "Another '_supposed'_ upgrade? What's that supposed to mean?"

"This is actually my TARDIS," Rose told Donna, smiling as she leaned back against the console. "Shatterfry the plasmic shell, remember? We followed your advice, and grew her in the parallel world. The Doctor's TARDIS, the one you used to travel on, is parked on Earth at the moment."

Donna put her bottom lip out. "Oh, that's a disappointment, I wanted to show Reese my old bedroom."

"Don't worry, Mum." Cross-legged beside Donna on the floor, Reese was still studying the cavernous console room ceiling as if hoping to decipher the trick of its magic. "I don't need any more proof that you used to be a space adventurer."

"She's still a space adventurer," corrected the Doctor, giving Donna a soft look. "Soon as I sort out your head. But, can't give you anymore of those injections within the next sixty hours, sorry. Might have to put you in a stasis chamber to protect you in the interim."

"Stasis?" Reese's dark brows drew together. "For how long? I don't want to live with Dad!"

The Doctor smiled at that as he circled to the console's diagnostic panel. "Remember, dear, this is also a time machine. That means I can drop you home, then pop your mum home five minutes later."

"Speaking of popping round, love," said Rose, the keyboard clicking under her fingers, "I'm going to swing us by Sarah Jane's to fetch our little ones."

After a thrown lever, a few wooshing pulses of the rotor, and a mild shudder, the TARDIS doors were being flung open. "Donna!" Suzy screeched as she burst in at full speed, her small trainers clanging against the grated ramp. "You're here! I knew you'd come home!"

"A-ha!" shouted the Doctor, at a similarly gleeful volume. "I knew it! You two are partners in crime, and _somebody," _he paused, fixing his small, tumble-haired daughter with a look, "needs to tell me what happened."

Suzy blinked guiltily, her eyes finding Sarah Jane, who had just come through the door carrying a pyjama-clad DJ. Sarah looked over at Rose. And Rose glared at _him_, like it was his fault.

Mouth falling open, the Doctor put his hands up. "What the heck did _I_ do?"

Rose tilted her head and raised her brows. "Vortex manipulator, left out where your daughter could find it. Ring a bell?"

"You never said she actually used it!"

"She's _your_ daughter," Rose repeated, enunciating slowly, like he was a bit thick. "Of course she used it. Smuggled it to poor Sarah Jane's today. Suzy was desperate to seek out Donna because of those dreams she's been having."

"The TARDIS made the dreams, Daddy," Suzy called out, from the safety of Donna's lap. "She wanted me to find Donna."

Rose gave their baby a cuddle and kiss, having just lifted her from Sarah's arms. "I do think we should've paid more attention to what Suzy was telling us, Doctor."

Every set of eyes in the room watched him, yearning to scrutinse what he might say next, every nose poking into his parenting choices. The Doctor folded his arms with a disgruntled huff. "Well... I can see that now, can't I? And I've already promised to do my best to help Donna, so there's no point in any of you people lecturing me about it!"

Suzy flung her arms around Donna. "You get to stay!" she squealed, and then a moment later she was on her feet, hurling herself toward the Doctor. "Oh, thank you, Daddy," she said, breathless with excitement as he caught her in his arms.

Hearts melting, he swung her up into a hug. "I'm sorry I didn't listen, darling," he murmured in her ear, as her small arms wrapped tight around his neck. "But what you did- it was very dangerous. Something bad could have happened to you, or to Donna."

"I know." Big, dark, long-lashed eyes gazed sadly into his. "I'm sorry."

He nodded. "Okay. We'll chat more about it later. But for now, Suzy, you do need to understand something." The Doctor looked up, raising his voice so everyone could hear. "You all do realise that it may take a bit of time to find a solution to Donna's issue? Weeks, perhaps. It will not be sorted today."

As everyone silently absorbed that, Rose wandered over to him, a bright-eyed DJ upright in her arms. The baby smiled, delighted at finding herself nearly eye-to-eye with her big sister, and then giggled when Suzy pulled a silly face for her benefit. "What do you see as the options, love?" Rose asked him.

Abruptly, the Doctor tipped Suzy upside-down, grinning when both little girls screeched with laughter. "Better neuroinhibitor? I don't know, that's what I plan to pursue first, I suppose. I've got to develop something that can be used long-term, daily use, with minimal side-effects. Somehow. Large task."

He lowered a wriggling, laughing Suzy to the floor head-first, then righted her and set her on her feet. As she ran off, still giggling, the Doctor gazed openly into Rose's eyes, knowing she was keenly aware of all the doubts, the question marks, that came with this idea. It wasn't just a large task, but a near impossible one.

"Daily use?" Donna asked him, inspecting her manicure. "Like a pill?"

"Hopefully."

"Thank god. Not much of a fan of the needles." Creakily, she got up from the floor, promptly relocating to the jump-seat. "Oh, this is so much better," she said to Reese, motioning for the girl to join her on the bench. "I'm not dizzy anymore, and that floor is murder on my bum…"

"Doctor." Rose quietly drew his attention again. "I've been thinking about this all day, and… well, what do you think of using the chameleon arch? I mean," she pressed on, ignoring his immediate nose wrinkle, "a human mind can't hold a Time Lord consciousness, which is why, when it made you human, it stored yours in a pocket watch. Donna has the exact same problem. Why can't it do it for her as well?"

He shook his head, reluctantly, stroking a hand over DJ's soft, downy hair. "I wish it could, but the chameleon arch is designed to make a Time Lord human. Mind _and_ body, all at once. Donna's body is already human, dear. It won't know what to do with her."

"Can't you, I dunno, modify it or something?" Wincing, Rose worked to untangle her hair from DJ's grabby little hand. "You know, so it works the other way around, to make a human into a Time Lord? Then we wouldn't have to get all that stuff out of Donna's head, or suppress it or anything. She could just keep it."

His wife's casually voiced suggestion left the Doctor a bit gobsmacked. Change a human into a Time Lord? Such a thing was unheard of, Rose had no idea the magnitude of what she was asking. "I appreciate your faith in me, love," he answered her, exhaling, "but the chameleon arch is very advanced Time Lord technology. Took a team of scientists ages to develop. Any modification would be far, far too complex a task, even for a brain like mine. I'm sorry, but I can't do it on my own."

"Well, that's grand," Donna's voice rang out, and the Doctor looked to discover that she, Reese, and Sarah had all been listening intently. "Because I don't at all fancy becoming a Time Lord. Ugh."

Reese looked confused, Sarah Jane snickered, and the Doctor felt highly offended. "The Time Lords are the most biologically advanced species in the multiverse."

"Yeah, and I say no thanks," retorted Donna. "I far prefer the pill idea." She glanced at Reese's trainers, which were propped on the console. "Darling, your shoe's come untied, you should do it up again before you trip."

"I know, Mum, god." Reese sighed mightily and squeezed her eyes shut. "I'm not five. And I'm just _sitting_ here."

The Doctor felt similarly exasperated. "Donna, the pill idea is a long shot, okay, so don't go shooting down other ideas. Not unless you've got a better one to offer."

A rushing river of static white energy pulsed through his bond with Rose, suddenly flooding him with pure overwhelm. Startled, his eyes snapped to hers. "What is it, love? What's the matter?"

Mouth slack, Rose stared at the Doctor, taking no notice of the way DJ was fisting her shirt and squawking unhappily. "I have a better idea. _Doctor_."

"Rose?"

"You said you can't do it on your own. Modify the chameleon arch." Tears filled her eyes, thoroughly alarming him. Unconsciously facing DJ outward, she began bouncing her. "So why don't we get help?"

His alarm bells racketed up a level, to near deafening clangs and whistles. "Wait. You can't mean…"

"Gallifrey, yeah." Rose laughed, her wet eyes sparkling. "I suppose it's finally time for us to find it. Your home."

Home. It twisted up his stomach, a word that normally evoked only warm, cuddly sorts of feelings. Find Gallifrey? Maintaining eye contact with Rose, the Doctor couldn't yet speak, but he allowed her to feel his incredibly conflicted emotions. Saving his planet was one thing. Knowing it still existed, somewhere, had done much to heal his hearts. But to return there? Purposefully seek it out?

"I don't know, Rose," he said, dragging a hand down his face. "You're human, and Donna's human…"

"And your people are prejudiced," she softly finished for him. "I know."

His jaw tightened. He fully expected the Time Lords to meet him with hostility, that was certainly nothing new. But to see them turn up disdainful noses at his beloved human wife, his children, his friend? "It's too risky," he told Rose, with finality in his voice. "I don't trust them."

"But we've always known this day would come, Doctor. We can't avoid it forever. I know you're expecting the worst, but maybe something really good can come out of it."

"But what if nothing good happens? The Time Lords- more than likely, they'll try to _stop_ us helping Donna. There's not one of them that might willingly help me modify some insanely complex technology in order to change a human into a Gallifreyan."

"Not even _one_ of them?" Rose tilted her head, smiling at him like she knew better.

"Well." Nose curling, arms crossing, he grudgingly reconsidered. And then sucked a shocked breath as Time abruptly wrenched open a trapdoor beneath his feet; sent him plummeting, panicked and flailing, down toward the very path he'd tried to reject. Quite rocky terrain, he saw, in the fleeting glimpse he caught of the entire winding length of it. Steep and treacherous and difficult to traverse.

But.

He also saw it would lead them exactly where they needed to go.

As Rose slowly swam back into focus, the Doctor coughed out a laugh. "Well. One or two of them might."

Rose's eyes lit up and then she laughed too, and reached her free arm out to hug him. "Oh my god, Doctor, we're really going to go-"

They were interrupted by a long, fed-up wail from DJ. "Whoops...oh, you poor girl," she chuckled, taking in the baby's red face and crocodile tears, a forlorn little thing in yellow footy pyjamas. "Are you just _so_ hungry?"

"Kids always are, especially when we're in the thick of something important," he replied with a wry smile, watching Rose go and settle into her armchair in order to nurse their daughter.

"Do you understand what they were talking about?" he overheard Reese asking her mother. "They want to change you, somehow?"

A hard sigh came from Donna, deep and long and put-upon. "Oh, I understand it all right. Basically, they intend to fly me to the Doctor's home planet, regardless of how I might feel about it, so they can get all his friends to help him turn me into a _Martian_." Another sigh. "Isn't that _wizard_."

Reese's eyes nearly bugged out. "Oh my god, he's going to take you to Mars?"

"Of course not," spluttered the Doctor. "I'm not, I'm not from Mars-" He cut off, troubled as he heard a sob escape Rose. "Oh dear, Rose, what's wrong?" Fear finally hitting her, no doubt, over the prospect of a stay-over with the worst in-laws _ever-_

"I miss you saying that, Doctor," Rose said, sniffling loudly and rubbing circles on DJ's back.

"Saying what?"

Another sniff; mascara-tinted tears trailed down her cheeks. "You know- 'isn't that wizard'. You used to say it all the time."

Brow deeply furrowing, he absorbed that for a moment and then met Donna's eyes. "Sorry, Donna, Rose gets emotional sometimes. All those nursing hormones."

Rose glared at him through her tears. "Hey."

"I don't think Gallifreyans age, Donna, so it's not all bad," Sarah Jane informed her, with just a touch of envy in her voice. She straightened from where she'd been leaning against the railing, and stretched. "Anyway, I'm shattered, I'm heading to bed. Don't be strangers, though. I want to hear how this all turns out."

"Goodnight, Aunt Sarah!" Suzy called out, running to her for hugs.

The hugs and goodbyes went on for a good fifteen minutes, before Sarah Jane finally made her escape. As the door closed, Rose sat DJ up on her lap. "I give up, she won't settle down to eat properly. There's too much going on. Always afraid of missing out, this one."

Looking almost back to normal, Donna ambled over and crouched beside Rose's chair, in order to get a better look at the baby. "Isn't this one a darling, Reese?" she cooed, as the rosy-faced, fluff-haired DJ charmed her with a huge smile. "She's even named after me, can you believe it?"

"Yes, she's our little Donna." His Rose was getting teary again. "Can't believe you're actually meeting each other."

Suzy hopped up and down to gain their attention. "Daddy and I call her DJ," she supplied, climbing up to straddle the chair's arm like it was a pony.

"Yes, you mentioned," replied Donna, covering her eyes then peeking out, a little game to elicit more baby smiles. "That reminds me- Rose, didn't you say her middle name was Amelia, or something? Where's the J come from?"

"Don't," Rose insisted, as the Doctor and Suzy shared a look and started laughing. "You two think you're funny, and you're not."

The Doctor rocked back on his heels. "You can be the one to tell her," he offered to Suzy, charitably.

Never one to miss a chance for some good theatrics, Suzy made to stand on the chair's arm, but got instantly shooed off by her mother. Undaunted, she spread her arms wide, and hollered out the punchline. "It's cos Daddy always calls her his little Donna _Junior!"_

Then she laughed, and the Doctor laughed, and DJ did too, just because they were laughing. Rose shook her head. Donna did not even crack a smile. "Of course he'd think that was the height of wit," she commented, obviously siding with Rose. "A dad joke."

Her reaction only contributed to the Doctor's enjoyment. "It fits, though," he told her, grinning. "You should hear how she shouts her lungs out. Give you a good run!"

Donna ignored him. "So, Rose. Who's this Amelia, then?"

The Doctor stopped laughing. "No," he said sternly, wagging a finger at Rose's wide grin. "No no no, not happening."

Reese had just come over and she patted Donna's shoulder. "Don't worry, Mum. Whoever she is, she's just the baby's middle name. Not as important as the first."

The Doctor envisioned Amy overhearing that, and was promptly horrified. "Wait, did I say that? I don't think I said that!"

"Oh, I'm not worried," Donna told Reese, grinning at him all the while. "Just very, very, very intrigued."

All at once the floor rumbled under his feet, the rhythmic grinding sound of the TARDIS exiting reality filling his ears. The Doctor spun in time to catch his oldest daughter scrambling back from the console, looking guilty as sin. "Susan Jacqueline Tyler, what did you just touch?"

"Only the quick-return switch." The time rotor continued to pulse like a heartbeat- sure enough, they weren't floating in the vortex, they were traveling through it. Suzy clasped her hands together, her eyes wide and sweet. "You said I could, Daddy."

"Yes, to get you home if there's an emergency_-_"

"It's alright, Doctor." Rose shoved the baby into his arms. "I was hoping to stop by our house anyway. Might not be there again for a bit, what with searching for Gallifrey and all. I want to ask Rory if he'll water our plants now and again."

As his sweet baby daughter settled against his chest, contentedly gnawing on her fist, the Doctor wondered how she (and everyone else on his ship) could be so relaxed and happy, when everything in life was obviously spinning out-of-control. "Oi, we can't go there now, it's nearly DJ's bedtime, you know how she gets. And we haven't even dropped Reese off home yet."

Nobody responded, too busy pointlessly chatting as they began to gather coats and bags. He raised his voice, not faking the note of fear. "Hello. _Hello!_ Donna's head is going to burn up!"

"Not for a few hours yet." Rose shot him a look that clearly said he was being unreasonable.

"Ooh," he heard Donna gush. "You two own a house? A real house? How'd you ever talk Spaceman into that?"

"I didn't, I surprised him with it. Said it was a gift. See, the thing is, he had this friend, that's the Amelia we've been talking about, and...okay, so this is the funniest story. See, for the longest time the Doctor thought he'd lost her, but-"

"Rose! Donna doesn't need to hear that story right now, we've got to-" The rest was lost as DJ let out a happy shriek, obviously enjoying his energy.

"Half the world has heard that story." Rose shoved a blanket into DJ's bag. "Amy wrote a children's book about it, for Pete's sake."

"See, that's exactly why he needs to have humans along," said Donna, doing up the buttons of her coat. "Otherwise he misses things." Then her eyes lit up. "Wait a sec. If I get turned into a Time Lord, will I still be at least a little bit human?"

"Of course," answered Rose, like she was some renowned expert or something.

Donna directed a smile his way, and it was positively wicked. "Oh, Spaceman. If that's true, then you won't be the cleverest person around anymore, will ya? That'll be me. Ha!"

In that moment, she already sounded so much like a pompous Time Lord that it made the Doctor legitimately nervous. "Now, hold on, that's going a bit far." He carefully approached her, shifting a squirmy DJ into the crook of his left elbow. "Let me check your mental barriers to make sure they're holding up okay."

"My head's fine, dumbo."

"Bit strange, isn't it, how you've gone from being all "I'm nothing, I don't matter," to 'oh, my bad, I'm actually the most important person in the universe,' in the span of one afternoon-"

"She was always important, she just forgot," Reese reminded him, tucking her lip gloss into her purse. "Mum, is my hair alright?" And then, as Donna checked her over, carefully smoothing down a few stray curls, rather cheekily asked, "Does his planet have any princes, by chance?"

At that the Doctor's ears perked up. "Sorry to disappoint, but _I'm_ Gallifrey's only royalty. I once married Queen Elizabeth."

Rose looked up from packing the baby bag, her jaw slack. "Are you kidding me right now."

"I mean," he backtracked hastily, "I'm not actually royalty. I _jilted_ her…" His gaze slid back to Reese. "But that's cool too, right?"

The rotor stilled, the rumbling stopped. Suzy ran for the door with a joyful shout. "C'mon, Aunt Donna, you've got to meet my other aunt, Amy! And guess what- she's got red hair too!"

"For the first time ever I'm happy you're blonde," grumbled the Doctor to DJ, once everyone else had piled off the ship, leaving the two of them alone. DJ gazed up at him with big eyes and smiled, grabbing hold of his chin with one ice-cold, spit-drenched hand, and his bow-tie with the other.

He sighed, but allowed it. It was far from the worst thing that might happen to him tonight. "There's already going to be too many gingers in one place, I just know it. Don't think the universe could take any more."

* * *

**So- anybody surprised by the ending? See it coming a mile away? And yes, there will be one more Donna story to come. Next up, the Doctor and his family find Gallifrey. Stay tuned!**


End file.
